Seismic response of end-bearing piles in saturated soil to P-waves

This paper presents an analytical study on the kinematic response of single cylindrical end-bearing piles embedded in homogeneous saturated soil, due to the propagation of seismic P-waves from the bedrock. The governing equations of soil are based on Biot’s theory, while the pile is modelled as one-dimensional rod bonded to its surrounding soil. Solution of the pile and soil governing equations results in closed-form expressions for pile displacement and for the frictional force at the soil–pile interface. These expressions are employed to study the difference in the kinematic response of piles embedded in saturated two-phase soil, compared to piles in single-phase soil, and investigate the sensitivity of the axial kinematic response of piles to the main problem parameters. We show that ignoring the two-phase nature of saturated soil may result in significantly underestimating the amplitude of strong motion transferred to the base of pile-supported structures.