Dynamic Response of an Inhomogeneous Elastic Pile in a Multilayered Saturated Soil to Transient Torsional Load

Abstract

In this paper, we solve the dynamic response of an inhomogeneous elastic pile embedded in a multilayered saturated soil and subjected to a transient torsional load via a semianalytical method. To portray the inhomogeneity of the pile and the stratification of surrounding soil, the pile-soil system is subdivided into Nth layers along the depth direction in view of the variation of shear modulus or cross-sectional dimension of the pile or differences in soil properties. Then, the vibration displacement solution with undermined constants for any saturated soil layer subjected to the time-harmonic torsional load is obtained by virtue of the separation of variables scheme. To establish the connection of adjacent longitudinal soil layers, the circumferential contact traction at the interface of the adjacent layers is treated as the distributed Winkler subgrade model independent of the radial distance. Then, by utilizing the continuity conditions of the pile-soil system and the method of recursion typically used in the transfer function technique, the torsional impedance of the pile top can be derived in the frequency domain. By virtue of inverse Fourier transform and convolution theorem, the velocity response of an inhomogeneous pile subjected to a transient half-sine exciting torque and embedded in a layered saturated soil is gained in the time domain. Finally, selected numerical results are gained to investigate the influence of typical defects in pile and soil layering on the velocity response of the pile top in the time domain.