Marine and harbor structures, wind turbines, bridges, offshore platforms, industrial chimneys, retaining structures etc. can be subjected to significant lateral loads from various sources. Appropriate assessment of the foundations capacity of these structures is thus necessary, especially when these structures are supported by pile groups. The pile group interaction effects under lateral loading have been investigated intensively in past decades, and the most of the conducted studies have considered lateral loading that acts along one of the two orthogonal directions, parallel to the edge of pile group. However, because of the stochastic nature of its source, the horizontal loading on the pile group may have arbitrary direction. The number of studies dealing with the pile groups under arbitrary loading is very limited. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the arbitrary lateral loading on the pile group response, in order to improve (extend) the current design approach for laterally loaded pile groups. Free head, flexible bored piles in sand were analyzed through the extensive numerical study. The main hypothesis of the research is that some critical pile group configurations, loading directions, and soil conditions exist, which can lead to the unsafe structural design. Critical pile positions inside the commonly used pile group configurations are identified with respect to loading directions. The influence of different soil conditions was discussed.

中文翻译：

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砂土中任意侧向荷载作用下的柔性桩群相互作用因素

船舶和港口结构，风力涡轮机，桥梁，海上平台，工业烟囱，固定结构等都可能承受来自各种来源的巨大侧向载荷。因此，有必要对这些结构的地基能力进行适当的评估，尤其是当这些结构由桩组支撑时。在过去的几十年中，已经对横向荷载作用下的桩群相互作用效应进行了深入研究，并且大多数进行的研究都考虑了沿平行于桩群边缘的两个正交方向之一作用的横向荷载。但是，由于其源的随机性，桩组上的水平荷载可能具有任意方向。在任意载荷下处理桩组的研究数量非常有限。本文的目的是研究任意侧向荷载对桩群响应的影响，以改善（扩展）当前的侧向荷载桩群设计方法。通过广泛的数值研究，分析了自由头，柔性钻孔的沙子桩。研究的主要假设是存在一些关键的桩群配置，荷载方向和土壤条件，这可能导致不安全的结构设计。相对于加载方向，确定常用桩组配置内部的关键桩位置。讨论了不同土壤条件的影响。通过广泛的数值研究，分析了沙子中的柔性钻孔桩。研究的主要假设是存在一些关键的桩群配置，荷载方向和土壤条件，这可能导致不安全的结构设计。相对于荷载方向，确定了常用桩组配置内部的关键桩位置。讨论了不同土壤条件的影响。通过广泛的数值研究，分析了沙子中的柔性钻孔桩。研究的主要假设是存在一些关键的桩群配置，荷载方向和土壤条件，这可能导致不安全的结构设计。相对于荷载方向，确定了常用桩组配置内部的关键桩位置。讨论了不同土壤条件的影响。