Ground Vibration Caused by Dynamic Excitation on Pile Foundation

A computational approach based on pile-soil dynamic interactions was developed to analyze ground response due to excitation on pile foundation. In this work, pile group was assumed to have the concentric arrangement. The geometric and material properties of piles and soils were assumed to be invariable along the azimuth angle by introducing the equivalent stiffness of grouped piles. An axisymmetric finite-element model was employed after taking the Fourier expansion in azimuth for computational convenience. The field test of ground vibration in the vicinity of pile foundation which was subjected to horizontal loading by a shaker at the top of the footing was used to verify the proposed approach. The comparison of the simulated results and the field recorded data showed good agreement. This proved the reliability of the axisymmetric three-dimensional finite element program to predict the field vibrations considering pile-soil interactions.