Horizontal Bearing Characteristics of Large-Diameter Rock-Socketed Rigid Pile and Flexible Pile

In order to study the horizontal bearing characteristics of large-diameter rock-socketed rigid pile and flexible pile, two lateral loading tests in which the pile lengths are 5.2 m and 11.07 m were carried out. Unidirectional multi-cyclic loading was applied to the piles during the tests, with the maximum load reaching 3500 kN. The measured results are compared with the calculated results of Zhang’s method, m-method and the rigid pile method in the design codes. It is indicated that if the characteristic values of the horizontal bearing capacity of the large-diameter rock-socketed rigid pile and flexible pile are determined by the same horizontal displacement of the pile head, some risk will be brought to the design of the rigid pile. Compared with the rigid pile method, the m-method is more suitable for calculating the rotation angle of the pile head. In terms of the maximum bending moment of the large-diameter rock-socketed flexible pile under the critical load, the calculated result of Zhang’s method is less than the measured result, while the calculated result of the m-method is the largest. However, for the rigid pile, both Zhang’s method and m-method underestimate the maximum bending moment of the pile body. In summary, when a large-diameter rock-socketed pile is designed, reasonable calculation method and failure discrimination standard should be chosen according to the actual conditions.