A Simplified Analytical Method of Lateral Bearing Capacity of Rigid Single Pile Considering All Soil Reactions in Sand

Abstract

Analytical method has many merits over numerical iteration procedures in calculating the lateral bearing capacity of rigid single pile due to high efficiency and low computational cost. With consideration of the complexity of pile–soil interaction, the current analytical method may ignore the influence of the shaft-resisting moment, lateral force, and moment at the pile tip, leading to inaccuracy. In this paper, a simplified analytical method considering all soil reactions was proposed to predict the lateral bearing capacity of rigid single piles in sand. To be specific, the proposed models can estimate the variations of the shaft-resisting moment, lateral force, and moment at the pile tip with horizontal displacement. The derivative procedure of establishing force and moment equilibrium was illustrated by three cases; herein, the lateral bearing capacity of rigid single piles was obtained. The simplified method is validated by full-scale measurements. Based on the verified analytical solution, a parametric analysis is carried out to explore the influential factors (e.g., internal friction angle and pile diameter) of the lateral bearing capacity of rigid single piles.