Experimental pile subjected to long duration thrusts owing to a moving slope

Abstract

An instrumented pipe pile has been installed in an unstable slope to measure long-duration P–Δy lateral reaction curves. After outlining the main features of the experiment, results are given over a period of 16 years. These comprise the soil movements, the pile displacements, the bending moments and the reaction pressures. A Ménard pressuremeter method and a self-boring pressuremeter method are used to predict the P–Δy reaction curves, which are then used in a numerical model to derive the overall pile behaviour. The results are compared with measured pile displacements and bending moments and show that the pile displacements and bending moments calculated by the numerical model are markedly overestimated.