Title:
Behavior of a Bridge Pile Foundation under Combined Vertical and Lateral Loads
Author(s):
Sri Sritharan
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/28/2021
Abstract:
A large-scale outdoor test was conducted on a bridge pile foundation at a stiff clay site. The foundation consisted of eight steel H-piles, including four battered pile at each corner. The piles were capped with a prefabricated pile cap to support a bridge column. To evaluate a new Accelerated Bridge Construction concept for bridge substructure, the pile cap was precast and connected to the piles by embedding the pile heads into preformed pockets. The foundation was tested under different combinations of vertical and lateral loads. The magnitude of the loads as well as the height of the lateral loads were varied to produce different overturning moment-to-lateral load ratios under different vertical loads. Through successful load tests, usability of battered piles for seismic regions has been demonstrated. A numerical model with nonlinear springs representing soil resistance was developed to further investigate the battered pile behavior. A good agreement was achieved between the measured and computed pile group responses. The analytical results showed that the battered piles were subjected to larger axial forces but smaller bending moments than the vertical piles. The test and analytical results have also been used to quantify the foundation flexibility and its impact of seismic design of bridge columns.