SR58 Field testing of house timber pile foundations under lateral loading (1995)

This study forms the second phase of an investigation into the wind and earthquake racking resistance of timber piles used under New Zealand houses. The first phase can be found in report SR46.

Cyclic lateral load tests were performed on several representative pile systems used to brace New Zealand houses. Anchor, braced, fixed-head normal and driven piles as defined within the light timber framing standard (NZS 3604) were tested in soils that were close to the minimum bearing strength allowed by NZS 3604 including clay, silt, sand and peat.

The report includes test details and measurements. For each pile and soil type, non-linear equations were fitted to the measured hysteretic peaks. Wind design strengths were obtained directly from these equations. Earthquake design strengths were obtained from simulation by time history computer analysis using a model of the measured pinched hysteresis loops.