Pile capacity in a non-homogenous softening soil

Abstract

Closed form solutions for vertically loaded piles in elastic-plastic, nonhomogeneous soil have been established recently using an ideal elastic-plastic load transfer model. However, in some cases, the load transfer from piles to the surrounding soil shows softening behaviour. In this paper, the established solutions are extended to account for this behaviour using a simplified strain softening soil model. The solutions are recast in non-dimensional forms, and expressed via modified Bessel functions. The effect of non-homogeneity and the degree of softening on pile capacity is explored.