Analysis of Pile Foundations with Batter Piles

This paper presents a method of analysis of pile loads in foundations involving nonparallel piles, when both longitudinal and lateral resistances of piles are taken into account. Although the basic ideas underlying this method are substantially the same as in the other similar methods, the manner of applying these ideas is different in so far as a clear separation is made of the aspects of the problem that are reasonably definite and generally accepted from those that are uncertain. The element of uncertainty is present in the form of three coefficients, characterizing deformability of the piles, whose values can only be roughly estimated. By way of approximation, the two less important of these coefficients may be ignored and the third may be expressed in terms of data possessed by the designer, which lead to workable formulas suitable for practical use. A method of estimating the pile coefficients is also given, and by varying the values of these coefficients over a wide range, it is shown by an example that the error introduced by ignoring the minor coefficients is only moderate.