Static response of vertically loaded pile in inhomogeneous soil

Abstract

In this study, an analytical model is developed to obtain the static response of the vertically loaded pile in the inhomogeneous soil with arbitrary properties varying along the depth. The soil displacement is expressed by the product of the axial displacement function and the shape function attenuating with the distance from the pile periphery. Through the minimum potential energy principle, the governing equations are established for the axial displacement function and the shape function. The governing equation for the shape function is independent of soil properties and it can be explicitly solved. The governing equation for the axial displacement function contains variable coefficients due to the inhomogeneity of soil and it is solved using the weighted residual method. An iterative procedure is introduced to implement the solution. The proposed model is validated by comparing the present solutions with those obtained by the available methods. The parametric study shows that the pile head stiffness is affected by the distribution of soil shear modulus heavily, in which the average shear moduli are the same for these distributions. Moreover, the relationship between the pile head stiffness and the pile slenderness ratio for a floating pile is different from that for an end-bearing pile.