Investigation of liquefaction-induced lateral load on pile group behind quay wall

This paper presents the results of a shake-table test on a 2 × 2 pile group behind a quay wall. The main objective is to study the behavior of the pile group under the liquefaction-induced lateral spreading and the liquefied soil pressure exerted on the individual pile in the pile group. The test results are presented and discussed. Significant pile group effect is observed through a comparison of the monotonic bending moments of the individual pile in the pile group. In this regard, a simple finite element model is developed to evaluate the liquefied soil pressure on the individual pile in the pile group, in which, both the uniform and triangular soil pressures are calibrated based on the tested monotonic bending moments of the piles. The liquefied soil pressure on the pile near the quay wall is about twice as much as that on the pile far from the quay wall. Next, the liquefied soil pressure on the individual pile in the pile group is compared to that obtained from the shake-table test on single pile. Further, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of the pile rotational stiffness and the pile diameter on the pile group response. Finally, the concluding remarks are drawn based upon the presented results.