The stability of fully and partially embedded beam-columns in elastic Winkler foundations

Abstract

The stability, in terms of the buckling load, of fully and partially embedded piles that are supported laterally along their embedded length by an elastic Winkler foundation is investigated. Exact solutions are presently available only for a few specific cases. This work describes the exact closed-form solution to the governing equations which is derived using four defining non-dimensional parameters. These parameters specify the homogenous nature of the soil (in terms of both soil stiffness and shaft friction), the degree by which the frictional force along the pile shaft reduces the load supported at the pile foot and the proportion of the pile which is unembedded in the supporting medium. With the algorithm developed it is possible to produce the exact solution for any combination of soil conditions, end boundary' conditions, embedment ratio and degree of shaft friction supporting the applied load. In this manner, trends in buckling load and mode shape for each of these parametric variations are studied.