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Vertical impedance functions of pile groups under low-to-high loading amplitudes: numerical simulations and experimental validation

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Abstract

Piles in a group experience additional displacements in soil due to pile-to-pile interactions apart from those resulting from the external loading. The effect of these interactions determined assuming soil as an elastic and/or viscoelastic material on pile head impedance functions of the pile group is studied by relating the group stiffness to the static stiffness of a single pile. However, the prevailing elastic solutions may misestimate the resulting pile group response due to the lack of consideration for either soil (material) and/or soil-pile interface nonlinearities. It is well established that soil behaves nonlinearly under moderate-to-high loading amplitudes, and besides, the soil-pile interface nonlinearity can exist even at small loading amplitudes. This study addresses the effects of these nonlinearities on the vertical impedance functions of a 3×3-pile group using numerical methods by direct analyses and superposition using pile-to-pile interaction factors. The numerical results are validated using scaled model tests under 1 g conditions. The results highlight the overestimation of pile-to-pile interactions in the pile group when assuming elastic soil conditions. The cases either by direct analyses or superposition approach involving soil and soil-pile interface nonlinearities agree well with the experimental pile group responses under close-to-elastic and nonlinear conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Saitama, Japan

    Usama Zafar, Chandra Shekhar Goit, Masato Saitoh & Riku Fukuda

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  1. Usama Zafar
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  2. Chandra Shekhar Goit
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  3. Masato Saitoh
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  4. Riku Fukuda
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Correspondence to Usama Zafar.

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Zafar, U., Goit, C.S., Saitoh, M. et al. Vertical impedance functions of pile groups under low-to-high loading amplitudes: numerical simulations and experimental validation. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 22, 647–666 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-023-2183-y

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