Influence of cyclic loading on performance of steel piles in sandy soil

Building and Construction Engineering Department, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

^* Corresponding author: Al_Neami74@yahoo.com

Abstract

This paper introduces an experimental study to clarify the response of steel pile models exposed to the cyclic loading. Thirty six models of two types of steel piles are tested (open ended pile and H-pile) with lengths equal to (30, 40, and 50) cm. Three diameters (2.5, 3.5, and 4.1) cm for open ended pipe pile and three flange widths (2.6, 3.6, and 4.4) cm for H-pile are investigated. Jacking technique is employed to installed piles models in dry sandy samples with two different relative densities (60% for medium sand 80% for dense sand). It is found that the pile geometry (diameter and length) with sand density have a high impact on the number of cycles. Analysis of results showed that increasing of pile diameter and relative density cause a reduction in the number of cycles when the length of steel pile models are fixed while variety of diameters of open ended pipe pile has a small effect on the number of cycles. It was found that pipe piles with open ended have more resistance to the cyclic loading compared with H piles under the same geometric conditions (pile diameter, embedded length and sand density) especially in medium sand. Finally, if the testing conditions are the same, number of cycles is decreased with increasing in amplitude loading