Reliability Based Analysis and Optimum Design of Laterally Loaded Piles

In this study reliability based limit analysis is used to determine the ultimate capacity of laterally loaded piles.  The aim of this study is to evaluate the lateral load capacity of free-head and fixed-head long pile when plastic limit analysis is considered. In addition to the plastic limit analysis to control the plastic behaviour of the structure, uncertain bound on the complementary strain energy of the residual forces is also applied. This bound has significant effect for the load parameter. The solution to reliability-based problems is based on a direct integration technique and the uncertainties are assumed to follow Gaussian distribution. The optimization procedure is governed by the reliability index calculation.