Response of a laterally loaded pile group due to cyclic loading in clay

In offshore engineering, lateral cyclic loading may induce excessive lateral movement and bending strain in pile foundations. Previous studies mainly focused on deformation mechanisms of single piles due to lateral cyclic loading. In this paper, centrifuge model tests were conducted to investigate the response of a $2{\times}2$ pile group due to lateral cyclic loading in clay. After applying each loading-unloading cycle, the pile group cannot move back to its original location. It implies that residual movement and bending strain are induced in the pile group. This is because cyclic loading induces plastic deformation in the soil surrounding the piles. As the cyclic load increases from 62.5 to 375 kN, the ratio of the residual to the maximum pile head movements varies from 0.30 to 0.84. Moreover, the ratio of the residual to the maximum bending strains induced in the piles is in a range of 0.23 to 0.82. The bending strain induced in the front pile is up to 3.2 times as large as that in the rear pile. Thus, much more protection measures should be applied to the front piles to ensure the serviceability and safety of pile foundations.