An investigation of the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete piles under lateral loading

In this study, the influence of nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) piles on soil-pile interaction was investigated. Primary goal of the model test program was to investigate the hypothesis that nonlinear pile material behavior might play an important role on soil-pile interaction (SPI), an aspect of SPI which was not studied extensively for RC piles.A comprehensive testing program is planned and pursued in order to account for the influence of pile bending stiffness on soil-pile interaction (SPI), loading rate and axial load effects on lateral pile response. Prior to the model pile tests, bending tests were made on beam specimens to obtain the moment-curvature relationship of piles. Five types of model piles were tested under lateral loading and lateral-axial loading. Tests involved testing of model piles with and without bending reinforcement. The steel fiber ratio by volume is decided as 1% for the bending reinforced model pile with fibers and steel fiber reinforced concrete model piles.Test results such as hinge formation, head displacement, moment distribution and soil surface movement around the pile were assessed and the performances of the piles were evaluated. Experimentally derived p-y curves are compared with the currently available industry standard API (American Petroleum Institute) recommended p-y curves. Effects of nonlinear behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete and reinforced concrete pile on soil-pile interaction were investigated. A new methodology to improve the industry standard API procedure is suggested to incorporate pile flexibility parameters into the p-y curve formulation