Validation of practice oriented models and influence of soil stiffness on lateral pile response due to kinematic loading

Earthquakes usually cause both inertial and kinematic loading of pile foundations. Inertial loading and lateral pile response can be predicted to a certain extent by lateral pile load tests for important engineering projects. However, there is no accepted in situ assessment method for pile behavior due to kinematic loading. Therefore, it is important for geotechnical engineering practice to validate the practice oriented models and examine the influence of soil strength parameters on the performance of kinematically loaded piles due to lateral spreading. For this purpose, a well-documented case of full-scale lateral spreading test conducted at Port of Tokachi in Japan by Ashford et al. (2006) is selected as a primary reference in terms of test data and site conditions. Four p-y analyses are performed using a special purpose software based on finite difference technique. The first two investigate the employment of different p-y curves suggested in the literature. The third one investigates the influence of variations in internal friction angle and undrained shear strength. In the fourth analysis, liquefied shear strength and residual shear strength approaches are utilized for the liquefiable layers and their effects are investigated. In all analyses, mobilized lateral pressures in non-liquefied layers are also scrutinized. The results of the analyses are discussed and compared with the measured values in the field. Finally, conclusions are given based on the analyses and discussions.