Response of Soil Plug to Seaquake Induced by the Vertical Seismic Excitation

수직 지진 진동에 의해 유발된 해진에 대한 관내토의 거동

During an earthquake, there are three main components of excitation : horizontal excitation of the ground, vertical excitation of the pile due to superstructure feedback produced by vertical excitation of the ground, and the seawater excitation induced by the vertical ground shaking, that is, "the seaquake." These excitations could have effects on the soil plugs in open-ended pipe piles installed at offshore sites. In this study, seaquake excitation induced by the vertical ground shaking was simulated by pulsing the water pressure at the seabed. During a seaquake, due to induced excess porewater pressure and pressure gradients in the soil, the capacity of open-ended pipe piles installed in a simulated sea depth of greater than 220 m was reduced serevely and the soil plugging resistance was degraded by more than 80%. The soil plug was failed because of the upward seepage forces that developed in the soil plug due to excess pore water pressure produced in the bottom of the soil plug during the seaquake. The compressive capacity of an open-ended pile in a simulated sea depth of less than 220m was reduced only by about 10%, and the soil plug resistance was degraded by less than 5%.s than 5%.