Dynamic elastic analysis of pile foundations using finite element method In the frequency domain

A quasi-three-dimensional finite element method of analysis is proposed for the dynamic response analysis of pile foundations that is computationally feasible for practical applications. The method uses a simplified three-dimensional wave equation for describing the dynamic response of the soil. The response of the pile foundation is computed directly without having to use pile-soil-pile interaction factors. The quasi-three-dimensional solution greatly reduces the computational time for the direct analysis of pile groups. The method is presented here for an elastic response so that it can be validated against existing more exact elastic solutions and low-amplitude field vibration tests. The method is extended to nonlinear dynamic response analysis in an accompanying paper.