Experimental and numerical study of laterally loaded vertical and batter piles in sandy soil conditions

Model study was conducted in the laboratory to observe the behavior of vertical and batter piles under the application of lateral loads. Mild steel model piles had 22 mm outer diameter and 1 mm thickness. Sand was poured in the mild steel tank and two different relative densities i.e., 35% and 60% were maintained for each test. The piles were having different slenderness (L/D) ratios 18, 28, and 38 and batter pile with 15°, 25°, 35°, and 45° angles with respect to the vertical axis were used for testing. Physical modeling of the piles was done such that their effect can be simulated in the field. Batter pile having 35° negative batter angle shows higher resistance to loads than the pile with positive batter angle as well as the vertical pile, further increase in angle causes a reduction in the pile resistance. The test results also indicate that the slenderness ratio and density variation influence the vertical and batter pile lateral load capacity. The experimental study shows that the pile load capacity does not vary linearly with the increases in length of the pile. This implies that beyond a certain length, the change in load-carrying capacity decreases, and pile length loses its significance. The percentage increase in the load carrying capacity was around 75% in slenderness ratio 18–28 which reduced to 23% for slenderness ratio 28–38. Numerical modeling was also performed using ANSYS to investigate the vertical and batter pile behavior under lateral loads. A good correlation between numerical modeling and experimental results was observed.