Comportement de pieux d'essais instrumentés sous charge horizontale

This paper describes the behaviour of two test piles (one bored and postgrouted and one simply bored, both 31.7 m long and 0.75 m in diameter) subjected to horizontal loads. These full-scale pile tests were carried out for the actual design of the pile foundation of a pier of the Evripos cable-stayed bridge. This bridge will link the Euboea Island to mainland Greece. The two piles have already been subjected to bearing capacity tests under axial loadings. The inclinometer measurements, taken during the present tests, yielded, in particular, the deformed shape of the piles as well as the bending moments. Conclusions could be drawn for the final design of the pile foundation with respect to horizontal loadings. Furthermore, various calculation methods using p–y reaction curves for cohesionless soils have been checked: the Ménard pressuremeter method, the method of the American Petroleum Institute recommendations, and the Standard penetration test method of Christoulas. These pile tests show that simple measurements, taken on construction sites, can yield interesting results on the actual behaviour of horizontally loaded piles. Key words : pile, horizontal loading, full-scale test, horizontal loads, bending moment, subgrade reaction modulus, p–y curve, cohesionless soil, Standard penetration test, pressuremeter test.