TECHNICAL NOTE Numerical Analysis of Piles Under Cyclic Lateral Load Subhadeep Banerjee • Omprakash N. Shirole Received: 13 August 2013 / Accepted: 6 December 2013 Ó Indian Geotechnical Society 2013 Abstract The paper presents the results to study the response of piles in homogeneous and layered soils subjected to quasi-static and cyclic lateral loading using numerical analysis. The analyses are carried out using three-dimensional finite element software, ABAQUS v6.10. Hypoelastic con- stitutive model is used to simulate the small strain nonlinear behavior of soil observed during the application of cyclic lateral load on piles. The bending moment and deflection responses computed from ABAQUS analyses are compared with the results obtained from the reported case histories of field pile lateral load tests and centrifuge tests. The favorable comparisons established that the three-dimensional numerical analysis can be effective to model complex soil–pile systems. Numerical analysis was also able to simulate a cement injected layer as a reinforcement body to the soft foundation soil, which can affect the pile response. The study was further extended to understand, the effect of flow of surrounding soil around the laterally-loaded piles on the response of piles. Keywords Numerical analysis  Hypoelastic model  Laterally-loaded piles Introduction Pile foundations are extensively used to achieve the bearing capacity required to support heavy super-structure loading, such as that imposed by many important inland and offshore structures e.g. bridges, port and harbour, tall structures like water tanks, chimney, etc. In view of this, the behavior of pile foundations under cyclic lateral loadings earthquakes, sea-waves, blasts, etc. is an important factor affecting the serviceability of those structures. For example, Wilson [20] noted that piles in firm soils generally perform well during earthquakes, while the performance of piles in soft or liq- uefied ground can raise some questions. There is a significant history of observed soil–pile interaction under cyclic load- ing, having often resulted in pile and/or structural damage or failure. For instance, the potential significance of damage to piles was clearly demonstrated during the 1995 Kobe earthquake and more recent 2005 Sumatran earthquake. Margasson [11] provided evidence on failure of a waterfront dock supported on pile foundation on Alaskan clay during the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Comprehensive studies on failure of highway systems in 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, also revealed gap and slippage formation of soft organic soil due to cyclic shearing [13]. Dash et al. [4] reported tilting of a pile-supported tower block resting on a thick clay deposit during 2001 Bhuj Earthquake. It was noted that the most of the clay stratum except the top 2 m undergoes cyclic failure resulting in ground deformation and cracking. Since early 1970s soil–pile response has been exten- sively studied to fulfill the demands of two sectors, off- shore oil production activities, and to a lesser extent, the nuclear power industry. Since then various analytical pro- cedures [5, 12, 14] and numerical simulations [22] have been developed for soil–pile interaction. In general, dif- ferent types of constitutive relationships ranging from lin- ear elastic to complex nonlinear elasto-plastic models were adopted to model stress–strain behavior of soil. However, most of those analytical or numerical techniques are often restricted to relatively idealised conditions. S. Banerjee (&) Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India e-mail: subhadeep@iitm.ac.in O. N. Shirole Geotechnical Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India 123 Indian Geotech J DOI 10.1007/s40098-013-0092-0