Behaviour of pile foundations under special loading conditions: 1994 R.M. Hardy keynote address

Previous analyses of the ultimate resistance and displacements of rigid piles under lateral loads and moments have been extended to the general case of eccentric and inclined loads on flexible piles by using the concept of effective embedment depths of equivalent rigid piles. Recent research on the behaviour of large model tests on instrumented rigid and flexible piles under eccentric and inclined loads in sand, clay, and layered soil is summarized. Reasonable agreement is found between observed and predicted behaviour. The proposed method of analysis is also supported by comparison with the results of many field case records of single piles and large pile groups under lateral loads indifferent types of soils. Key words : bearing capacity, displacement, eccentric loads, inclined loads, layered soil, pile.