AbstractA boundary element formulation for the dynamic analysis of axially and laterally loaded single piles and pile groups is presented. The piles are represented by compressible beam‐column elements and the soil as a hysteretic elastic half‐space. The governing equations of motion for the pile domain have been solved exactly for distributed periodic loading intensities. These solutions are then coupled with a numerical solution for the motion of the soil domain by satisfying equilibrium and compatibility at the pile‐soil interface. The results obtained from the analysis compare favourably with those from alternative analyses, e.g. finite element, but at greatly reduced computational