A numerical study was made for linearly elastic soil-pile conditions to clarify the lateral soil-reaction behavior of a pile. The apparent lateral stiffness of soil is strongly influenced not only by the soil stiffness but also the geometry and the stiffness of a pile. Also, the apparent lateral stiffness of soil varies significantly with depth, even if the soil stiffness is constant with depth. A newand improved procedure for estimating the lateral soil springs thatcan be used with the beam-on-Winkler foundation model of a soil-pile system is presented. With these soil springs the beam-on-Winkler foundation model can reproduce with excellent accuracy the pile responses computed from the corresponding continuum system. Athough limited to linearly elastic soil-pile conditions, the results may be expanded to nonlinear soil conditions.
Abstract