TITLE:
Behaviour of Batter Micropiles Subjected to Vertical and Lateral Loading Conditions
AUTHORS:
Binu Sharma, Zakir Hussain
KEYWORDS:
Batter Micropiles, Vertical Load, Lateral Load, Length to Diameter Ratio, Failure Mechanism
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.7 No.2,
February
28,
2019
ABSTRACT: Micropiles are drilled and grouted piles having diameter between 100 to 250
mm. Due to its small diameter, it is suitable for low headroom and limited
work area conditions. It can be installed without noise nuisance, without vibrations
to surrounding soils and structures and without disruption to the
production operations in industries which makes micropiles suitable for underpinning
and seismic retrofitting of structures. It is necessary to therefore
understand the behaviour of micropiles under different loading conditions.
This work is on vertical and battered micropiles with different length/diameter
ratio (L/D) subjected to vertical and lateral loading conditions. Batter angles
had a significant influence on both the vertical and lateral load carrying capacity.
The ultimate vertical load was found to increase upto a 30° batter. The
ultimate lateral load was found to increase significantly with increasing L/D
ratios upto an L/D ratio of 30 for vertical and 48 for battered piles, beyond
which the increase was found to be not significant. In general, negative battered
micropiles offered more lateral resistance than positive battered micropiles.
The results of the study indicated that the ultimate load capacity and
mode of failure of the micropiles are a function of the angle of batter, direction
of batter and the L/D ratio for vertically and laterally loaded micropiles.