Vertically loaded single piles in Gibson soil

The available closed-form solutions for vertically loaded piles have been, strictly speaking, limited to homogeneous soil, or nonhomogeneous soil with the shear modulus as a power of depth. The latter solutions-based on a zer o shear modulus at ground surface-are generally sufficiently accurate for n ormally consolidated soil. For overconsolidated soil, however, there is gen erally a nonzero shear modulus at the surface, which may affect pile respon se. In this note, rigorous closed-form solutions are established to account for the nonhomogeneity of soil profile with nonzero shear modulus at groun d surface. The solutions are developed using a load transfer approach, and are shown to give satisfactory results in comparison with a more rigorous c ontinuum-based numerical approach, when the proposed load transfer factors are adopted.