State Space Solution of Response for Piles Subjected to Lateral Loads

Abstract

A state space method has been put forward for finding the deformations and internal forces of piles subjected to lateral loads. First of all, a pile was divided into a number of pile segments, on which the foundation reaction coefficients were viewed as a constant based on the three parameter method. Secondly, state space equations of all the pile segments were established according to Euler-Bernoulli’s beam theory and the equilibrium conditions of a pile segment. At last, a state space solution of a pile subjected to lateral loads was obtained using the boundary conditions at the top and bottom end of the pile and the continuous conditions at the interfaces between two adjacent segments. Numerical results show that the state space solution agrees well with the semi-analytical one, and all the computational formula, procedure and programming are very simple.