Load transfer of the disconnected pile

An analytical method for the load transfer mechanism of the disconnected piles has been developed in terms of continuum elasticity. To simulate the behavior of a disconnected pile, a fictitious soil–pile column with a continuous modulus function is proposed. The axial force, skin force, and pile settlement along the shaft are explicitly derived. By considering the soil–pile interaction, the unknown coefficients in the solution are computed as a series of algebraic equations. The correctness of the present solution has been validated, and the convergence tests have been implemented. A parametric study has been carried out to examine the impact of various factors, including the pile location, slenderness ratio, and pile-to-soil modulus ratio, on the load transfer of disconnected piles. The results indicate that DRP may subjected to smaller pile displacement and prominent axial force along the shaft with a small slenderness ratio of piles and a big pile-to-soil modulus ratio. Specifically, the negative skin force at the upper part of the disconnected pile is almost counterbalanced by the positive skin force at the lower part of the pile. For end-bearing disconnected piles, the displacement of the surrounding soil is consistently greater than that of the shaft.