Behaviour of Flexible Batter

Behaviour of Flexible Batter Sastry Vankamamidi1 Summary The behaviour of single free head model flexible batter piles buried in sand and subjected to horizontal loads is investigated. The theoretical estimates of ultimate load, location and magnitude of maximum bending moment for the piles were obtained by considering a vertical rigid pile under inclined load and using semi empirical relations. The length of the equivalent rigid pile was based on the relative stiffness factor of the pile. Model tests were carried out using instrumented flexible piles of wide ranging flexibilities. The piles were buried in loose sand at batter angles of β = ± 30o, ± 15o and were subjected to incrementally increasing horizontal load. The pile capacities and the variation of bending moment along the pile shaft were measured. The observed values agreed reasonably well with the estimated values.