A pile-soil separation concerned model for laterally loaded piles in layered soils

Abstract

A pile-soil separation concerned continuum method is proposed to analyze the response of laterally loaded piles in a homogeneous multilayer elastic medium. The displacement fields of soil vary in the vertical direction and decrease in the radical direction. Variational principles are used to obtain the governing differential equations for the pile and soil displacements. Closed-form solutions are derived and the pile deflection, pile rotation, bending moment and shear force for the entire length of the pile can be obtained. The validity of proposed approach is demonstrated through comparisons with previous methods, 3D FD analysis and data obtained from a published pile test. The influence of pile-soil separation is explicated by the results of a comprehensive parametric study involving the slenderness ratio and flexibility factor of the pile. It can be concluded that the deflection of pile is larger when pile-soil separation happens, and the effect can be reduced for piles with larger slenderness ratio and medium flexibility.