Dynamic analysis of pile groups subjected to horizontal loads considering coupled pile-to-pile interaction

Abstract

This paper presents a new analytical model for calculating the horizontal dynamic impedance of pile groups with arbitrary members connected with a rigid pile cap. The derived solution allows considering robustly the effect of pile-to-pile interaction on the impedance of the group, by accounting for the secondary waves generated by the vibration of the receiver pile, and how these alter the response of the source pile. This is achieved by introducing a modified expression for the pile-to-pile interaction factor that accounts for coupling of source and receiver pile displacements. It is shown that this effect can be important for closely-spaced pile groups subjected to high frequency excitations. The proposed solution can be straightforwardly used to determine the frequency-depended impedance of large pile groups comprising an arbitrary number of piles, which numerical modelling can be cumbersome.