A unified soil reaction model for laterally loaded monopiles in soft and stiff clays

To develop a unified soil reaction model suitable for laterally loaded monopiles in soft and stiff clays, this paper employs an experimentally validated numerical method to analyze the influence of diameter, embedded length ( L ), and clay types (soft or stiff) on the soil reaction model, proposing a unified model based on hyperbolic soil reaction curve. This model fully considers the contributions of distributed lateral load , base moment, base shear force, and distributed moment to the lateral resistance . The results of the analysis indicate that the ultimate normalized lateral soil resistance ( p ¯ u ) of soft and stiff clays in the wedge flow zone increases with depth, reaching a peak in the full flow zone with the peak points located around 0.5 L . The maximum of p ¯ u between soft and stiff clays is positively correlated with the ratio of effective vertical stress to undrained shear strength ( σ v ′ / s u ) at the current depth. The ultimate base shear force and base moment for monopiles in soft and stiff clays can also be represented by σ v ′ / s u at the base. Through rigorous validation with centrifuge and field tests , the unified soil reaction model proposed in this paper can accurately predict the response of monopiles in soft and stiff clays.