Dynamic Models of Piled Foundations

Abstract

The vibration behavior of piled foundations is an important consideration in fields such as earthquake engineering, construction, machinefoundation design, offshore structures, nuclear energy, and road and rail development. This paper presents a review of the past 40 years' literature on modeling the frequencydependent behavior of pile foundations. Beginning with the earliest model of a single pile, adapted from those for embedded footings, it charts the development of the four pilemodeling techniques: the “dynamic Winklerfoundationâ€‌ approach that uses springs to represent the effect of the soil; elasticcontinuumtype formulations involving the analytical solutions for displacements due to a subsurface disk, cylinder, or other element; boundary element methods; and dynamic finiteelement formulations with special nonreflecting boundaries. The modeling of pile groups involves accounting for pilesoilpile interactions, and four such methods exist: interaction factors; complete pile models; the equivalent pier method; and periodic structure theory. Approaches for validating pile models are also explored.