Experimental study on cyclic lateral response of piles in sandy sloping ground

This study aims to experimentally investigate the cyclic lateral responses of piles in sloping ground. The effects of slope angle θ, number of cycles n, and loading pattern (static or dynamic) on the pile responses (inc. unloading stiffness and residual displacement) were revealed by a series of laboratory (1-g) model tests considering the combined effects of slope and cyclic lateral loading. The measured responses indicated that all the pile head displacement, bending moment, lateral earth pressure, and unloading stiffness increase non-linearly with n. Thereinto, the pile head displacement x can be fitted by the function x = A(θ)n0.1 where the coefficient A(θ) is linearly related to tanθ; the residual displacement decays exponentially with the number of cycles. In addition, the slope effect would exacerbate the pile responses under cyclic loading, for instance, the maximum bending moment is linearly related to tanθ, and the depth of contraflexure point increases by 0.14 times the pile diameter when the slope angle increases by 1°.