Analysis and Design of Laterally Loaded Piles by Pressuremeter Test

In this paper a theoretical approach is provided for getting a series of P-y curves of laterally loaded piles from the expansion curves of selfboring pressuremeter. A hyperbolic model is used to describe the nonlinear behavior of subsoil, where the parameters of a(z) and b(z) are assumed to vary linearly with depth z. Using the above model, a mathematical expression of the subsoil reaction P (z, y ) is obtained by fitting the P-y curves from the pressuremeter. A differential equation of elastic subgrade beam is used to solve the problems of laterally loaded piles. The solution of the differential equation is obtained by using the method of finite differences with the given boundary conditions of the pile. A program for the analysis and the design of laterally loaded piles is compiled. The computation results are fairly comparable with the observations of a practical example.