Numerical analysis of pile foundation in liquefiable soils: parametric study

ABSTRACT

Liquefaction has been a main cause of damage to civil engineering structure in seismically active areas. The effects of damage of liquefaction on deep foundations are very destructive. Seismic behaviour of pile foundations is widely discussed by many researchers for safer and more economic designs. In this paper, a finite element model, whose accuracy was validated through experimental results, has been constructed to study the responses of pile under liquefaction using OpenSees computer package. The soil continuum was modelled by brick elements and a two-surface plasticity model. The effects of parameters such as superstructure mass, pile stiffness, soil density, maximum acceleration of input motion and ground slope are studied. The results indicated that the pile dynamic response near the ground surface is approximately under the control of dynamic response of superstructure mass, pile stiffness, soil density, and maximum acceleration of input motion, while the lower regions of pile are almost under the control of ground slope.

KEYWORDS:

• Soil–pile–structure interaction
• pile foundation
• Earthquake
• liquefaction
• seismic response

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Zahmatkesh

Ali Zahmatkesh was born in 1984 in Ferdows, Khorasan, Iran. He received his Ph.D. degree in Geotechnical Engineering from Babol University of Technology, Iran in 2016. His research interests cover soil improvement, soil liquefaction and numerical modeling.