Buckling of Piles in Layered Soils by Transfer Matrix Method

Abstract

The transfer matrix method is applied to the buckling of end-bearing piles partially or fully embedded in a layered elastic medium with a constant coefficient of subgrade reaction for each layer. The solution of the governing differential equation for each pile segment can be expressed as the product of a fourth-order matrix and a coefficient determinant. Using the transfer matrix method and combining the boundary conditions at both ends of the pile, the buckling load is obtained by solving the eigenvalue equation. A parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of the properties of the soil–pile system on the stability capacity of the pile. It is shown that the effects of the embedment ratio, soil layer thickness, and soil stiffness on the buckling of piles are quite significant. Several calculation examples are presented to verify the present method.