| Summary: | The nonlinear load-settlement behaviours of vertically loaded pile groups containing various numbers of piles (up to a few hundred piles in a group) are analysed using the method proposed by Lee and Xiao. This back-analysis method assumes the “local shear displacement” of a thin layer of disturbed soil along the pile–soil interface and the soil outside the interface is assumed to be linear elastic. Parametric studies are conducted to examine the load-displacement behaviours of the rigidly capped pile groups. Factors such as the number of piles in a group, pile slenderness (<i>L/D</i>), and pile spacing (<i>S/D</i>) are examined to study the effects on the performance of pile groups up to the failure state. Some phenomenological features of large pile groups under nonlinear conditions, which are difficult to obtain through an elastic analysis, are revealed in the present analysis.
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