Computational Modeling of Nonlinear Soil-structure Interaction on Parallel Computers

In order to satisfactorily reproduce the Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) effects under earthquake loading, it is often necessary to model a large domain of the soil surrounding the structure of interest. High spatial/temporal resolution is another challenge in analyzing these models. A new parallel nonlinear finite element program, ParCYCLIC, is employed to study such high fidelity large-scale SSI models. ParCYCLIC incorporates a constitutive model that has been calibrated by physical tests to represent the salient characteristics of sand liquefaction and associated accumulation of shear deformations. The numerical implementation is designed for distributed-memory parallel computer systems, and allows for performing explicit as well as implicit time integration. In this paper, a single pile embedded in mildly inclined, liquefiable soil deposit is analyzed under dynamic base shaking conditions. Aspects of model response, including pore pressure generation/dissipation, soil lateral deformation during liquefaction, and pile displacement and bending moment, are presented and discussed.