Analysis of Horizontal Load Response and Pile–Soil Interaction in Barrette Foundations

The barrette exhibits significant directionality when subjected to lateral load, under the same load, the barrette loaded along the major axis has a longer load transfer length and less deflection. Under horizontal loading, a nearly rectangular passive compression zone forms in the front region of the barrette, while an arch-shaped tensile zone forms on the sides due to friction between the barrette and the soil. At this time, the soil resistance experienced by the barrette is mainly composed of the normal soil resistance from the compression zone and the lateral friction resistance. Specifically, when loaded along the major axis, the proportion of lateral friction resistance to the total resistance is significantly higher than when loaded along the minor axis. In the normal stress distribution in front of the barrette, aside from stress concentrations at the corners within the loaded width range, the normal stress distribution is relatively uniform. For a barrette loaded along the major axis, the ratio of the average earth pressure at the upper front to that at the midpoint is approximately 1.05; for a barrette loaded along the minor axis, this ratio is about 1.1.