Vertical Vibration Analysis of Soil-pile Interaction Systems Considering the Soil-pile Interface Behavior

A numerical method is presented herein to study soil-pile interaction systems in a stratified media. The method is based on a coupling of the finite element method and the boundary element method. The near field is modeled by the finite elements whereas the far field is modeled by the boundary dement formulation using the multi-layer dynamic fimdamental solution that satisfies the radiation condition of the waves. The two fields are coupled by imposing the displacement compatibility conditions at the interface between the near and far fields. Special attention is paid to the soil-pile interface using elastic springs to model the discontinuity at the interface. In order to validate the analytical approach, a forced vibration test is simulated and the response under vertical harmonic loads at the pile cap in the layered half plane is calculated. The results are compared with the published theoretical and experimental results. Finally, numerical analyses of various soft-pile systems are peffonned to examine the dynmnic behavior of the systenl depe~ldmg Oll parameters such as the elastic modulus of the pile mid the sfiffiless of the interface springs.