In this paper, to further understand the bending failure mechanism of a bridge footing subjected to lateral seismic loading, the effect of pile arrangement on the bending performance of a footing is mainly investigated by parametric analysis. The pile location can considerably affect the bending failure pattern of the footing by constraining the extent of yielding of footing top bars. The piles placed at the center of the sides parallel to the loading direction can constrain the extent of yielding of the top bars in the loading direction. Similarly, the piles at the center of the sides perpendicular to the loading direction can constrain the extent of yielding of the top bars in the other direction. The center pile can constrain the extent of yielding of the top bars in two directions. Additionally, based on the analytical results of the parametric analysis, the application condition of the current beam theory-based design method expected to accurately evaluate the footing bending capacity is discussed from the aspect of pile spacing.
