An Automated Approach to Analyzing Media Contribution to H-Piles Driven into Compacted Fills

The purpose of this study is to establish the contribution of a soil medium to the behavior of a laterally displaced pile in a displacement-controlled system. Engineers have often assumed that piles driven into well-compacted fills have a lateral response that correlates closely to those driven into undisturbed soils. An investigation into whether this assertion holds throughout the media cross-section forms the crux of this thesis. HPILE, a pile analytic program, was developed by the author of this thesis to foster a quicker analysis of a laterally loaded pile driven into a given media. HPILE uses strain data collected along the length of a laterally displaced pile under various degrees of static lateral loading to develop soil p-y curves by solving the regulating differential equation. The significant contribution in lateral resistance by a medium led to results that will influence design considerations and subsequently discount the assumption regarding behavioral similarity.