Nichtlineare p-y-Beziehung von Stahlbetonpfählen und stahlfaserverstärkten Stahlbetonpfählen in mitteldichtem Sand

Nonlinear p-y relationships of reinforced concrete and steel fiber added reinforced concrete piles in medium dense sand

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the influence of nonlinear pile material behavior on soil-pile interaction (SPI), an aspect of SPI which was not studied extensively for reinforced concrete (RC) piles. For this purpose a model pile test program was implemented, which involved testing of RC piles and RC with steel fiber piles. The steel fiber ratio by volume was decided as 1 % based on previous experience. Prior the model pile tests, bending tests were made on flexural elements to obtain the moment-curvature relationship of piles. Therefore, the influence of pile bending stiffness was taken into consideration in the p-y curve analyses. The effects of loading rate and axial load on soil-pile interaction were evaluated. It is concluded that axial load significantly increases the soil-pile stiffness of the RC pile. Rate of loading considerably alters the p-y curve of RC pile whereas it slightly influences the p-y curve of RC with steel fiber pile. A new methodology to improve currently accepted p-y curve establishment procedures is suggested by incorporating pile flexibility parameters into the formulation.