• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.976-984
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• 2009

This study proposes a simple method that uses a simple mass-spring model to predict the natural frequency of a soil-pile-structure system in sandy soil. This model includes a pair of matrixes, i.e., a mass matrix and a stiffness matrix. The mass matrix is comprised of the masses of the pile and superstructure, and the stiffness matrix is comprised of the stiffness of the pile and the spring coefficients between the pile and soil. The key issue in the evaluation of the natural frequency of a soil-pile system is the determination of the spring coefficient between the pile and soil. To determine the reasonable spring coefficient, subgrade reaction modulus, nonlinear p-y curves and elastic modulus of the soil were utilized. The location of the spring was also varied with consideration of the infinite depth of the pile. The natural frequencies calculated by using the mass-spring model were compared with those obtained from 1-g shaking table model pile tests. The comparison showed that the calculated natural frequencies match well with the results of the 1-g shaking table tests within the range of computational error when the three springs, whose coefficients were calculated using Reese's(1974) subgrade reaction modulus and Yang's (2009) dynamic p-y backbone curves, were located above the infinite depth of the pile.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2010

It is important to calculate the natural frequency of a piled structure in the design stage in order to prevent resonance-induced damage to the pile foundation and analyze the dynamic behavior of the piled structure during an earthquake. In this paper, a simple but relatively accurate method employing a mass-spring model is presented for the evaluation of the natural frequency of a pile-soil system. Greatly influencing the calculation of the natural frequency of a piled structure, the spring stiffness between a pile and soil was evaluated by using the coefficient of subgrade reaction, the p-y curve, and the subsoil elastic modulus. The resulting natural frequencies were compared with those of 1-g shaking table tests. The comparison showed that the natural frequency of the pile-soil system could be most accurately calculated by constructing a stiffness matrix with the spring stiffness of the Reese (1974) method, which utilizes the coefficient of the subgrade reaction modulus, and Yang's (2009) dynamic p-y backbone curve method. The calculated natural frequencies were within 5% error compared with those of the shaking table tests for the pile system in dry dense sand deposits and 5% to 40% error for the pile system in saturated sand deposits depending on the occurrence of excess pore water pressure in the soil.