Pile foundations subjected to lateral loading

In the design of piles subjected to lateral forcest, two criteria must be satisfied; first, an adequate factor of safety against ultimate failure, and second, an acceptable deflection at working loads. In this paper, brief consideration is given to the calculation of the ultimate lateral load of piles and pile groups. The majority of the paper deals with the calculation of deflections, as it is generally the deflection criterion which governs the design. Single piles are considered first and then the approach for single piles is extended to pile groups. Finally, methods for analysing the deflections of pile groups subjected to combined lateral and vertical loads are described.