Laterally loaded circular elastic piles in layered soil are analysed by means of a rigorous elastic load transfer theory. In terms of effective stresses, the problem is decomposed into extended soil layers with elastic properties of the layered soil and a fictitious pile characterised by Young's modulus of the real pile and the respective Young's moduli of the soil layers. The unknown fictitious-pile shear force is determined from the condition that the horizontal displacement in the extended soil layers along the centroidal axis of the original pile location caused by a system of interactive forces is equal to the horizontal displacement in the fictitious pile. The real-pile shear force is obtained by combining the fictitious-pile shear force with the areal integral of the effective horizontal shear stress in the extended soil layers at the original pile position. The bending moment on the real pile is obtained from integration of the real pile shear force along the centroidal axis of the pile.Extensive parametric studies with regard to the maximum bending moment and pile top deflection are presented in graphical form for the design and analysis of laterally loaded piles in layered soil.
