Soil-pile-quay wall interaction in liquefaction-induced lateral spreading ground

Abstract

Earthquake-induced soil liquefaction and lateral spreading often causes damage to pile foundations of quays and offshore structures. In this study, the soil-pile-quay wall interaction in liquefaction-induced lateral spreading ground was analyzed from three perspectives—experimental investigation, numerical simulation, and parametric analysis. A large-scale (1 g acceleration) shake-table test was conducted on a 2 × 2 pile group behind a quay wall, and described in terms of sensor arrangement, model configuration, and test results. The test resulted in phenomena such as the quay wall overturning to the water side, and ground settlement. A 2D (two-dimensional) nonlinear FE (finite element) model of a coupled dynamic soil-water system, which considered soil-pile-quay wall interactions, was validated using the experimental data. Based on the validated model, a parametric study was conducted to illuminate the effects of the pile head fixing conditions, pile stiffness, superstructure mass, permeability coefficient, and acceleration. The results indicated that these parameters had a significant influence on the soil-pile-quay wall interaction in the liquefaction-induced lateral spreading ground. Investigating the effects of each of the five parameters on the dynamic performance of pile foundations in this study has guiding implications for tests and numerical simulations.