Evaluation of seismic p-yp loops of pile-supported structures installed in saturated sand

Pile-supported structures are installed on saturated sloping grounds, where the ground stiffness may decrease due to liquefaction during earthquakes. Thus, it is important to consider saturated sloping ground and pile interactions. In this study, we conduct a centrifuge test of a pile-supported structure, and analyze the p-yp loops, p-yp loops provide the correlation between the lateral pile deflection (yp) and lateral soil resistance (p). In the dry sand model (UV67), the p-yp loops stiffness increased as ground depth increased, and the p-yp loops stiffness was larger by approximately three times when the pile moved to the upslope direction, compared with when it moved to the downslope direction. In contrast, no significant difference was observed in the stiffness with the ground depth and pile moving direction in the saturated sand model (SV69). Furthermore, we identify the unstable zone based on the result of the lateral soil resistance (p). In the case of the SV69 model, the maximum depth of the unstable zone is five times larger than that of the dry sand model, and it was found that the saturated sand model was affected significantly by kinematic forces due to slope failure.