Reliability Analysis of Laterally Loaded Piles Using Improved Response Surface

An improved response surface method is performed to study the reliability analysis of laterally loaded piles under pile head displacement failure. A development of p-y curves for laterally loaded pile response in ground is used to model the pile-soil system. The random variables used are the N_pu, N_po, λ, E₅₀, H, and E_pI_p. The CDF and PDF curves of laterally loaded pile head displacement obtained from the improved response surface methods are proposed and are in good agreement with the Monte Carlo method. The influences on the failure probability by a number of random variables are studied and discussed. The failure probability of the pile under the pile head displacement failure mode is sensitive to coefficients of variation of N_pu, H, N_po, E_pI_p and E₅₀. The coefficients of variation ofλ do not significantly affect the failure probability of the pile under pile head displacement failure mode.