Numerical and Simplified Methods for Soil-pile Interaction Analysis

The paper presents a review of the analytical and numerical procedures developed by the authors for the dynamic analysis of soil-pile foundation systems subjected to the propagation of seismic waves in the soil. Inclined and vertical single piles and groups constituted by piles with a generic inclination are addressed. For the former, an analytical approach based on the beam on dynamic Winkler foundation approach is adopted; the pile is modelled as a Euler-Bernoulli beam and the soil-pile interaction is captured by defining soil impedances relevant to the harmonic vibrations of rigid disks available in the literature. The coupled flexural and axial behaviour of the pile is solved analytically exploiting exponential matrices. The pile group dynamic problem is similarly formulated but the solution is achieved exploiting the finite element approach. Besides numerical models, simplified approaches based on static equivalent methods and simplified formulas are also addressed to estimate the maximum kinematic stress resultants on vertical piles subjected to lateral seismic excitations. The reliability of the presented tools in capturing the dynamic stiffness and the overall kinematic response of pile foundations is shown by comparing results with those available in the literature or achieved through refined finite element models. From an engineering point of view, the proposed approaches assure a sufficient accuracy and may substitute refined computational demanding numerical models.