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