Plastic analysis of a fixed-head vertical pile shaft embedded in non-cohesive soil

Abstract

Flexural behaviour of a laterally loaded fixed head pile shaft depends essentially on a relative stiffness of the pile, soil modulus of the surrounding soil and the degree of fixity of the pile top. When large transient or permanent horizontal loads and bending moment have to be resisted by pile or on very soft soil medium, pile-soil system yields resulting in large lateral displacements. This paper presents lower bound analysis of a vertical pile with fixed head subjected to lateral load and bending moment and embedded in cohesionless material. For given lateral load and bending moment at the tip of the pile and resulting soil pressure distribution along the length of the pile, three cases have been studied. Parametric results have been presented and charts have been prepared to find the length of the pile required for given ultimate lateral load. The present approach is confined to the situation where lateral deflection of the pile is large. An example is also given to explain the use of these charts.