Analysis of laterally loaded piles on elasto-plastic springs

This is a spreadsheet for the analysis of laterally loaded single elastic piles. The pile-soil interaction is modelled with elasto-plastic springs defined by their stiffness and maximum force. Free or fixed conditions may be specified at the pile head.

This soil behaviour model provides excellent results and is usually sufficient to handle most of the buiding and bridge foundations design work. However, more advanced p-y or continuum models may be necessary for large rafts, high loads, offshore structures, unusual geotechnical conditions, cyclic loading, etc. As usual with any tool, proper engineering judgement is required.

An auxiliary worksheet is included in the file to demonstrate the calculation of spring properties. It presents an example that correlates CPT qc values with corrected SPT data and then proceeds to calculate springs’ stiffness and maximum passive forces.

The program allows the use of elastic piles of any shape, as the pile stiffness must be introduced directly and the soil springs properties input into the main worksheet already multiplied by their respective influence width.

Second order geometrically non-linear effects (P-Delta) are not taken into account in the analysis. Piles are assumed to remain elastic throughout the loading process.

The VBA module is, as usual, open source and the code is commented thoroughly.

Download Link

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresilvacorreia