Numerical analysis and design of laterally loaded piles

Abstract

The finite element or finite difference methods are commonly used to determine the reponse of single vertical piles under lateral loading. Various programs, such as COM624P, LPILE and FB-MultiPier, are used, to analyze the response of single vertical pile under lateral loading. These methods require rigorous computation and require the acquisition of such software in order to carry out the analysis. Hence, an alternative method, called constrained optimization approach, is introduced. This approach makes use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to evaluate the behavior of laterally loaded pile. An Excel VBA program, for the computation procedure of the nonlinear p-y curve of soil, is used together with the constrained optimization approach. In this paper, a comparison will be done between the constrained optimization approach and other method to determine the consistency and accuracy of both results.

After obtaining the results from the constrained optimization approach using Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, it shows congruity to the experimental field result and computed results from other method. Therefore, the constrained optimization method can be an alternative to the design of laterally loaded pile.