On predicting displacement-dependent earth pressure for laterally loaded piles

This paper presents the derivation of a depth-dependent soil displacement model for laterally loaded piles for use in the calculation of displacement-dependent earth pressure. A set of fourth-order differential equations are proposed to compute the pile deflection profile along the pile length. The radial displacement of the soil due to pile movement can be evaluated based on the geometric compatibility requirements. The soil displacement pattern is then used in the earth pressure model to provide the pattern of earth pressure distributed around the pile circumference. The experimental data of the pile response, in terms of the p-y curves reported in the literature, are employed for a comparison with calculations from the proposed approach and other analytical models. The advantages of the developed calculation framework have been demonstrated, namely, that it can accurately reproduce the experimental measurements of soil reactions acting on a pile at different depths and that the influence of the pile installation can be taken into account. An illustrative example of cantilever sheet piles is finally provided to show the ability of the proposed method to analyse complicated problems.