Stress waves in laterally loaded piles

The behaviour of single vertical piles subjected to lateral loading at the pile head was analysed. Based on the assumption of beam on elastic foundation, the analysis was made by using the method of direct analysis which is a numerical approach making direct use of governing physical laws without explicitly utilizing the differential equation of vibration. The analysis provides short-time pile response to pulse loadings. These results indicate, among others, that an interaction between the dilatation and shear waves results in a stress discontinuity of considerable magnitude which may deserve special attention in pile design.