Reliability analysis of laterally loaded piles

Since the material properties of the pile and the soil surrounding the pile are uncertain, the responses of pile are uncertain too. Reliability analysis of the responses such as the maximum bending moment in the pile and the pile head displacement were presented. The analyses of responses of pile were obtained by discretizing the pile as beam elements and by using the p-y curve to represent the soil resistance. Reliability analyses of laterally loaded pile were carried out using the first order reliability analysis method by considering the uncertainty in horizontal loading, the soil resistance and the stiffness of pile. Further, the effect of the uncertainty in the probability distribution parameters on the estimated failure probability was investigated using the point estimate method. The numerical results for the considered examples seem to suggest that the influence of the uncertainty in the probability distribution parameters on the estimated reliability is not very significant.