Measurement and analysis of horizontal vibration response of pile foundations

Pile foundations are frequently used in very loose and weak deposits, in particular soft marine clays deposits to support various industrial structures, power plants, petrochemical complexes, compressor stations and residential multi-storeyed buildings. Under these circumstances, piles are predominantly subjected to horizontal dynamic loads and the pile response to horizontal vibration is very critical due to its low stiffness. Though many analytical methods have been developed to estimate the horizontal vibration response, but they are not well validated with the experimental studies. This paper presents the results of horizontal vibration tests carried out on model aluminium single piles embedded in a simulated Elastic Half Space filled with clay. The influence of various soil and pile parameters such as pile length, modulus of clay, magnitude of dynamic load and frequency of excitation on the horizontal vibration response of single piles was examined. Measurement of various response quantities, such as the load transferred to the pile, pile head displacement and the strain variation along the pile length were done using a Data Acquisition System. It is found that the pile length, modulus of clay and dynamic load, significantly influences the natural frequency and peak amplitude of the soil-pile system. The maximum bending moment occurs at the fundamental frequency of the soil-pile system. The maximum bending moment of long piles is about 2 to 4 times higher than that of short piles and it increases drastically with the increase in the shear modulus of clay for both short and long piles. The active or effective pile length is found to be increasing under dynamic load and empirical equations are proposed to estimate the active pile length under dynamic loads.