Laterally loaded rigid piers in sand and sandy soils

In this research a model has been described to analyze and design rigid piers in sand and sandy soils. This model utilizes several soil spring constants to analyze the resistance-displacement relationship of the pier in sand and sandy soils. The soil spring constants used are lateral spring constants, bottom vertical spring constant, bottom friction spring constant, bottom moment spring constant, and friction spring constants on the periphery of the pier.

The most important aspect of obtaining the resistance-displacement relationship between the pier and the soils is to calculate the ultimate resistance capacity of each layer of soil, and the slope of the initial part of the resistance-displacement curve. These have been done efficiently and the results are promising that are described and discussed here. The minimum potential energy theorem is used to develop the system equations.