• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.273-286
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• 2020

The pile group foundation is widely used for gravity pier of high-speed railway bridges in China. If a moderate or strong earthquake occurs, the pile-surrounding soil will exhibit obvious nonlinearity and significant pile group effect. In this study, an improved pushover analysis model for the pile group foundation with consideration of pile group effect is presented and validated by the quasi-static test. The improved model uses simplified springs to simulate the soil lateral resistance, side friction and tip resistance. PM (axial load-bending moment) plastic hinge model is introduced to simulate the impact of the axial force changing of pile group on their elastic-plastic characteristics. The pile group effect is considered in stress-stain relations of the lateral soil resistance with a reduction factor. The influence factors on nonlinear characteristics and plastic hinge distribution of the pile group foundation are discussed, including the pier height, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and stirrup ratio of the pile, and soil mechanical parameters. Furthermore, the displacement ductility factor, resistance increase factor and yielding stiffness ratio are provided to evaluate the seismic performance of soil-pile system. A case study for the pile group foundation of a railway simply supported beam bridge with a 32 m-span is conducted by numerical analysis. It is shown that the ultimate lateral force of pile group is not determined by the yielding force of the single one in these piles. Therefore, the pile group effect is essential for the seismic performance evaluation of the railway bridge with pile group foundation.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.451-456
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• 2012

In this study, a numerical analysis to evaluate the reduction of seismic load due to pile group was performed and compared the peak ground acceleration(PGA) measured at free-field and foundation. The special attention was given to the amplification of seismic acceleration on the foundation due to the pile effects. The analysis considering pile effects was carried out for 4, 8 and 12 piles with same condition by PLAXIS 2D Dynamics. Based on the analysis results, it is found that the overall reduction in seismic load due to foundation and reduction rates are similar irrespective of pile numbers. This study gives a possibility for effective design of piled foundation by reducing seismic load about 20~25%.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.09a
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• pp.107-114
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• 2001

When group pile supporting structures are to be subjected to large lateral loads, generally, hatter piles are used in group pile with vertical piles. It is well known that batter piles resist lateral static loads which are acted upon the piles as axial farces quite well but, they show a poor performance under seismic loads. However, it is not yet known how the batter piles behave under dynamic loading and how to strengthen the batter piles to improve the seismic performance. Shaking table tests were performed to investigate the seismic behavior of the batter pile and to bring up the countermeasures to improve the seismic performance. As the result of the shaking table tests, batter piles failed due to not only the excessive increase of compressive force near the pile head but also that of tensile force. In case that the pile head was connected with pile cap by rubber joint, the max. acceleration at the pile cap was reduced due to the high damping ratio of rubber and the max. moment and max. axial farce at the pile head was decreased remarkably. When the inclinations(V:H) of the batter pile were 8:3 and 8:4, max. moment, max. shear force, and max. axial farce were reduced notably and max. acceleration and max. displacement at the pile cap was diminished, too.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2019

The finite element method (FEM) is widely used to evaluate the seismic performance of pile-supported buildings. However, there are problems associated with modeling the pile end resistance using the FEM, such as the dependence on the mesh size. This paper proposes a new method of modeling around the pile tip to avoid the mesh size effect in two-dimensional (2D) analyses. Specifically, we consider the area of influence around the pile tip as an artificial constraint on the behavior of the soil. We explain the problems with existing methods of modeling the pile tip. We then conduct a three-dimensional (3D) analysis of a pile in various soil conditions to evaluate the area of influence of the soil around the pile tip. The analysis results show that the normalized area of influence extends approximately 2.5 times the diameter of the pile below the pile tip. Finally, we propose a new method for modeling pile foundations with artificial constraints on the nodal points within the area of influence. The proposed model is expected to be useful in the practical seismic design of pile-supported buildings via a 2D analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2018

The seismic response, the natural frequencies and the mode shapes of an offshore wind turbine with twisted tripod substructure subject to various pile-ground interactions are discussed in this paper. The acceleration responses of the tower head by four historical earthquakes are presented as the seismic response, while the other loads are assumed as ambient loads. For the pile-ground interactions, the fixed, linear and nonlinear models are employed to simulate the interactions and the p-y, t-z and Q-z curves are utilized for the linear and nonlinear models. The curves are designed for stiff, medium and soft clays, and thus, the seven types of the pile-ground interactions are used to compare the seismic response, the acceleration of the tower head. The mode shapes are similar to each other for all types of pile-ground interactions. The natural frequencies, however, are almost same for the three clay types of the linear model, while the natural frequency of the fixed support model is quite different from that of the linear interaction model. The wind turbine with the fixed support model has the biggest magnitude of acceleration. In addition, the nonlinear model is more sensitive to the stiffness of clay than the linear pile-ground interaction model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2003

In this study, the three dimensional pile-soil dynamic interaction analysis of the railway bridge pile foundation was performed using SASSI 2000 program and the applicability of SASSI 2000 about an evaluation of the seismic stability of a pile foundation was examined. The numerical analysis was executed on the two site of actual construction and input properties such as the acceleration of bedrock were estimated by one dimensional seismic response analysis using the Pro-SHAKE. Consequently, all the piles of the subject of investigation showed that displacement occurred within a permitted limit and the shear force and moment largely occurred at the point where the soil stiffness varied rapidly.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.76 no.2
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• pp.223-237
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• 2020

Transmission towers have come to represent one of the most important infrastructures in today's society, which may suffer severe earthquakes during their service lives. However, in the conventional seismic analyses of transmission towers, the towers are normally assumed to be fixed on the ground without considering the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the pile-supported transmission tower. This assumption may lead to inaccurate seismic performance estimations of transmission towers. In the present study, the seismic response and failure analyses of pile-supported transmission towers considering SSI are comprehensively performed based on the finite element method. Specifically, two detailed finite element (FE) models of the employed pile-supported transmission tower with and without consideration of SSI effects are established in ABAQUS analysis platform, in which SSI is simulated by the classical p-y approach. A simulation method is developed to stochastically synthesize the earthquake ground motions at different soil depths (i.e. depth-varying ground motions, DVGMs). The impacts of SSI on the dynamic characteristic, seismic response and failure modes are investigated and discussed by using the generated FE models and ground motions. Numerical results show that the vibration mode shapes of the pile-supported transmission towers with and without SSI are basically same; however, SSI can significantly affect the dynamic characteristic by altering the vibration frequencies of different modes. Neglecting the SSI and the variability of earthquake motions at different depths may cause an underestimate and overestimate on the seismic responses, respectively. Moreover, the seismic failure mode of pile-supported transmission towers is also significantly impacted by the SSI and DVGMs.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

Seismic analyses of a pile under a large rigid basement foundation embedded in the homogeneous soil layer were performed practically by a response displacement method assuming a sinusoidal wave form. However, it is hard to take into account the characteristics of a large mat foundation and a heterogeneous soil layer with the response displacement method. The response displacement method is relevant to the 2D problems for longitudinal structures such as tunnel, underground cave structure, etc., but might not be relevant with isolated foundations for building structures. In this study, seismic pile analysis by a pseudo 3D finite element method was carried out to compare numerical results with results of the response displacement method considering 3D characteristics of a foundation-soil system which is important for the building foundation analyses. Study results show that seismic analyses results of a response displacement method are similar to those of a pseudo 3D numerical method for stiff and dense soil layers, but they are too conservative for a soft soil layer inducing large soil pressures on the foundation wall and large pile displacements due to ignored foundation rigidity and resistance.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.453-462
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• 2023

Designing pile foundations subjected to the uplift forces such as buildings, oil platforms, and anchors is becoming increasingly concerned. In this paper, the conceptual design of a new type of driven piles called expanding pile is presented and assessed. Some grooves have been created in the shaft of the novel pile, and some moveable arms have been designed at the pile tip. At first, static analyses using the finite element method were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the innovative pile on the axial bearing capacity. Then its effect on seismic behavior of moment frame is considered. Results show that the expanding arms were provided an ideal anchorage system because of the soil's noticeable locking-up effect increasing uplift bearing capacity. For example at the end of the static tensile loading procedure, displacement decrement up to 55 percent is observed. In addition, comparing the uplift bearing capacity of the usual and new pile with different lengths in sand and clay layers shows noticeable effect and sharp increase up to about two times especially in longer piles. Besides, a sensible reduction in the seismic response and the stresses in the beam-column connection between 23-36 percent are achieved that ensures better seismic behavior of the structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.455-468
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• 2019

The behavior of pile-deck connections of pile-supported marginal wharfs subjected to earthquake loading is of key importance to ensure a good performance of this type of structures. Two precast-pretensioned pile-deck connections used in the construction of pile-supported marginal wharfs were tested under cyclic loading. The first is a connection with simple reinforcement details and light steel ratio developed for use where moderate pile-deck rotation demands are expected in the wharf. The second is specifically developed to sustain the large rotation, shear force and bending moment demands, as required for the shortest piles in a marginal wharf. Data obtained from the test program is used in the paper to calibrate an equivalent plastic hinge length that can be incorporated into nonlinear analysis models of these structures when prestressed pile-deck connections with duct embedded dowels are used.