Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 36, No.

2, 1999

SOIL M E C H A N I C S

D E T E R M I N I N G P I L E REBOUND AND C A R R Y I N G C A P A C I T Y

D. Kolymbas and L. V. Nikitin U D C 624.154.001.5

A study is made on the propagation of longitudinal waves arising from the impact o f a falling
load on a partly driven elastic rod pile, which interacts with the surroundings in accordance
with the law of dry friction. Formulas are given for pile rebound. A simple method is produced
for determining the carrying capacity from dynamic tests.

INTRODUCTION

Gersevanov [1] considered the resistance of a pile on the basis of the wave theory for longitudinal
impact on a rod interacting with its surroundings in accordance with Coulomb friction. However, in deriving
the solution, he overlooked an important point. He neglected the fact that the frictional forces at the sides of
the pile are present only during the motion. The solution as corrected was derived in [2] and quoted also in [3,
4]. The solution has been extended [5] to the case where one incorporates the frontal resistance and a stronger
impact is used, when the pile continues to move after the arrival of the wave reflected from the upper end. That
problem has been considered also in [6]. The carrying capacity of a pile has been determined [5, 7, 8] from the
dynamic theory of a rod in a resistive medium. Here we survey and refine the above results.

1. THEORY OF LONGITUDINAL IMPACT ON A PILE

The pile is represented as an elastic rod having a length l, cross section S and perimeter L, which is
described relative to the x axis, being placed at its origin x = 0 at the struck end. The pile is already partly
driven and interacts with the soil in accordance with Coulomb friction, so when the pile moves relative to the
soil, a frictional force F arises at the side surface. The longitudinal stress cr and speed v in the sections of the
elastic pile satisfy the equation of motion

~ ~v
-0x
- = p-~-+tcr (1)

Translated from Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 2, pp. 2-8, March - April, 1999.
0038-0741/99/3602-0039522.00 9 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 39
md Hooke s law in differential form:

c3v c3cr
E m (2)
Ox Ot'

n which t is time, p density, E Young s modulus, and r = F L / S is the reduced frictional force. The value of
~: during the motion is dependent on the sign of the velocity. When there is no motion, ~r is not necessarily
zero and can take any value satisfying 14 < 1. The value of tr must be derived during the solution.
Equations (1) and (2) form a system defining o- and v. Instead of them, one can write a single equa-
tion of second order in terms of the displacement u:

a2 02U 02U K'~"

- - - ~- , (3)
OX 2 Ot 2 p

in which a = ( E / p ) w2 is the speed of elastic waves in the rod.

System (1) and (2) or (3) is nonlinear because it contains the dry friction switch ~r In the region
where the motion involves shearing, (3) differs from the classical wave equation only in a constant multiplied
by the sign of the velocity. The difficulties in deriving a solution arise from deriving the boundaries separat-
ing the regions of rest from those of motion with differing velocity signs. As 1r is a function of the velocity,
it is not known in advance. Sometimes, the sign of the velocity is obvious from the formulation, while even
then, the solution is not trivial because it is necessary to define the unknown b o u n d a r y between the areas of
rest and motion.
When the motion halts, tc is still unknown but can be determined from (1):

dcr / d x = m. (4)

Therefore, in the general case, the stresses in the rod may differ from zero even when it is at rest,
which must be borne in mind in formulating the initial conditions.
Usually, the rod is taken as being at rest and unstressed at the initial instant t = 0:

v = 0, o-= 0, ~:= 0 at t = 0. (5)

The characteristics of (1) and (2) and the relations along them take the f o r m

d x = +_ adt, +dcr- ap dv- tcradt = O. (6)

It follows from (1) and (2) that the steps in the stress (o-) and velocity (v) at the surface of strong dis-
continuity, i.e., that of discontinuity in cr and v, which propagates with velocity c, should satisfy

(or) + c p (v) = o, c (or) + E ( v ) = o, (7)

in which the angle brackets denote the steps in the corresponding quantities, e.g., (o-) = o- § - cr-; the super-
scripts + and - label quantities on opposite sides of the front.
System (6) has a nontrivial solution only for c = a; then the discontinuity m a y propagate only along
the (6) characteristics, along which we have

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