Buckling of piles in soft clay: comparison between analytical and numerical forecasting

Resumo

Steel piles are deep foundation elements that are mostly used in multi-storey buildings,
transmission towers and industrial constructions. It is a structural element that is industrially produced, with
laminated or welded steel profiles, single or multiple layer, pipe bending or calendered sheet metal tubes, weld
seam or seamless tubes and railway tracks. By the use of reduced cross-sectional area of piles in Brazil, especially
thinner steel piles (profile I or simple rails) that cross thick soft clay layers, it is considered the risk of pile buckling,
even with fully embedded piles. This work evaluates the critical buckling load of a steel pile in a soft clayed soil
using analytical and numerical methods. A comparison between the critical load test result obtained using these
methods and the allowable load provided by the pile manufacturer is made. There are differences between the
methods mostly due to the limitation on top of the pile. Therefore to verify the critical buckling load on a
foundation project, the suitable method should be the one most resembling the real situation acting on the structure.