Cyclic lateral response of piles in dry sand Effect of pile slenderness
During the past decades, many wars were trigged in the world and in particularly in the Middle East region. Those wars destroyed structure and foundations of buildings and bridges due to dynamical loads generated by explosions. Those explosions generate lateral dynamic loads which are not generally considered in pile foundation design and which can damage them. To assess the behavior of a pile under lateral load, the foundation French code "Fasicule 62 titre V" define three types of pile according to their flexibility: rigid, semi rigid and flexible. In order to statue the behavior of each type of pile under lateral cyclic load we have performed a finite element analysis model using the finite element software package PLAXIS 2D Dynamics, in conjunction with Hardening Soil model with small strain stiffness. The constitutive model was first calibrated and validated using measured data from centrifuge tests on a monopile in Fontainebleau sand that have been conducted in "Laboratoire Centrale des Ponts et Chaussees" by Rosquoet F (2004) A series of analyses were then carried out where cyclic lateral loads were applied to the pile for investigating pile slenderness effects on a monopile. Results from the study show that the head displacement of flexible and semi rigid pile increases according to the number of cycle following a logarithmic function. However, for the rigid pile, the head displacements increase in a linear function.