A close-formed solution for the horizontal vibration of a pipe pile in saturated soils considering the radial heterogeneity effect

Abstract

Based on the theory of Biot’s two-phase medium and Novak’s thin layer, a coupled mechanical model of pipe pile and radially inhomogeneous saturated soil is established by comprehensively taking into account the saturated surrounding soil’s construction disturbance effect and the influence of the pipe pile’s saturated inner soil. First, the displacements and horizontal impedances of the surrounding and inner soil are derived using the potential function, Laplace transformation and variable separation methods. Second, the analytical solution for the horizontal impedance of pile head is obtained by combining the conditions of the displacement continuity and stress equilibrium on the soil-pile interface. Finally, the obtained solution for the pile head’s horizontal impedance is reduced to validate the rationality of the proposed solution by making comparisons with existing solutions. On this basis, a detailed parametric analysis is given to explore the influence of the pile parameters and construction disturbance effect on the horizontal vibration characteristics of pipe pile.