P-Y curves for laterally loaded single piles: Numerical validation

Pile foundations are widely used in marine and coastal engineering structures. The correct analysis method must be used to ensure the safety of piled systems used in marine and coastal structures. Despite several methods available in the literature, the numerical method is increasingly applied for understanding the loading mechanism of pile-soil interaction under vertical, lateral, or seismic loadings. The present study focuses on the numerical validation of centrifugal test results of the single pile in dense sand under lateral loading. An extensive parametric study is carried out to validate numerical models due to the lack of experimental tests such as shear or triaxial tests. In the numerical model, the soil is represented by a kinematic hardening model, which is simple to calibrate in finite element analysis, whereas pile is modeled as an elastic material. The p-y family of the curve is back-calculated for a single pile and an algorithm is generated. Two interface models between soil and pile, namely full contact and frictional slip contact, are investigated to represent the behavior under horizontal loading. Then, the analyses are extended to vertical loading to assess the influence of interface models.