A novel approach for predicting lateral displacement caused by pile installation

A novel approach for predicting lateral displacement caused by pile installation in anisotropic clay is presented, on the basis of the cylindrical and spherical cavities expansion theory. The K0-based modified Cam-clay (K0-MCC) model is adopted for the K0-consolidated clay and the process of pile installation is taken as the cavity expansion problem in undrained condition. The radial displacement of plastic region is obtained by combining the cavity wall boundary and the elastic-plastic (EP) boundary conditions. The predicted equations of lateral displacement during single pile and multi-pile installation are proposed, and the hydraulic fracture problem in the vicinity of the pile tip is investigated. The comparison between the lateral displacement obtained from the presented approach and the measured data from Chai et al. (2005) is carried out and shows a good agreement. It is suggested that the presented approach is a useful tool for the design of soft subsoil improvement resulting from the pile installation.