Investigation of Pile- Soil Interaction Subjected to Lateral Loads in Layered Soils

To stabilize infrastructures such as tall buildings, bridges, etc., piles are used to resist lateral loads created from earth pressure, wind, waves and earthquake extensively. Pile design requires understanding of how the load is transferred from a pile to surrounding soil and vice versa. Pile properties, soil stress-strain behavior and pile-soil interaction play important roles in pile-response subjected to lateral loads. A study was carried out to investigate the effects of above-mentioned parameters on pile-soil behavior subjected to lateral forces. A comparison was made between the results derived from finite difference and equivalent spring methods by writing a computer program and using a civil engineering package, respectively.