Buckling of Fully Embedded Single Piles by Using the Modified Vlasov Foundation Model

An analytical method for analyzing the buckling of fully embedded single piles in an elastic medium is developed. The medium is simulated by the modified Vlasov foundation model. The governing differential equations of the pile and the surrounding elastic medium in the soil–pile system are derived by the variational principle, which are coupled when the pile buckles. A numerical iterative procedure is introduced to obtain the buckling loads and the corresponding mode shapes of the pile. Parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of the material properties of the soil–pile system on the buckling capacity of the pile. Numerical results show that the medium stiffness has significant influence on the buckling mode when the modulus ratio of the soil to the pile is large. Moreover, the effect of Poisson’s ratio of the soil on the buckling behavior of pile is negligible.