Analysis of laterally loaded piles with rectangular cross sections embedded in layered soil

An analysis is developed to determine the response of laterally loaded rectangular piles in layered elastic media. The differential equations governing the displacements of the pile-soil system are derived using variational principles. Closed-form solutions of pile deflection, the slope of the deflected curve, the bending moment and the shear force profiles can be obtained by this method for the entire pile length. The input parameters needed for the analysis are the pile geometry and the elastic constants of the soil and pile. The new analysis allows insights into the lateral load response of square, rectangular and circular piles and how they compare. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.