BEM analysis of laterally loaded pile groups in multi-layered transversely isotropic soils

Based on an analytical layer-element solution of multi-layered transversely isotropic soils, a boundary element method is adopted to analyze laterally loaded fixed-head pile groups. The pile-soil-pile interaction is considered directly by coupling the global stiffness matrix of pile groups and the soil's global flexibility matrix at the pile-soil interface. Good and reasonable agreement is obtained between the proposed and published solutions. A typical numerical example is presented to study the behavior of laterally loaded pile groups embedded in multi-layered transversely isotropic soils. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.