Kinematic response of a pile within a soil slope to SH wave excitation

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the topography of a slope can significantly enhance the magnitude of seismic waves. Nevertheless, the mechanism behind the topographic amplification on the kinematic response of a pile within a soil slope remains unclear. Consequently, a newly rigorous method is employed to investigate the kinematic response of a pile within a soil slope. The proposed method which combines the Wave Function Expansion (WFE) method and the Beam on Dynamic Winkler Foundation (BDWF) model advances the rigorous theoretical study for the kinematic response of a pile on slope from the pseudo-static analysis to the frequency-domain analysis. The proposed solution well captures the kinematic response of a piles within a slope. The parametric analysis focuses on investigating the influence of slope topographic amplification effects on pile vibration under different incident frequencies, slope gradients, and pile-to-soil modulus ratios. The results indicate that steep slopes and high pile-to-soil modulus ratios lead to higher topographic amplification effects, with specific frequencies significantly amplifying the kinematic response of pile within a slope. Nonetheless, as the pile located beyond twice the length of the slope, the amplification effect notably diminishes.