A simplified approach for settlement analysis of single pile and pile groups considering interaction between identical piles in multilayered soils

A new and simple approach is presented to analyze the elastic–plastic behavior of a single pile in layered soils using two models. One model adopts a hyperbolic approach to describe the nonlinear relationship between the shaft shear stresses and the displacement surrounding the pile shaft, and the other model uses a bilinear hardening model to simulate the relationship between the settlement and the mobilized load at the pile end. Furthermore, the interaction between identical piles including the pile shaft and the base interaction in multilayered soils is analyzed. Comparisons of the load–settlement responses for two well-instrumented field tests in multilayered soils are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed simple method. This present paper enables a quick estimate of the settlement of a single pile and a pile group embedded in layered soils, resulting in savings in time and cost.