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A dynamic p–y model for piles embedded in cohesionless soils

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A Correction to this article was published on 28 November 2023

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Abstract

The analysis of dynamic soil–pile interaction problems requires the relation of soil resistance to lateral loading that is represented by nonlinear p–y curves in the beam on the nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) approach. Current methods for p–y curves are either based on static load tests, or dynamic tests, which cannot properly consider soil nonlinearity. This study investigates the dynamic soil–pile interaction in cohesionless soils by numerical analyses to better characterize the p–y curves considering the nonlinear soil behavior under dynamic loading. A numerical pile–soil-structure model was created in FLAC3D and verified by two centrifuge tests published in the literature. The parametric analyses were performed to obtain the p–y curves for various pile diameters, soil relative densities, and degrees of nonlinearities. Based on the parametric analyses, a mathematical model was proposed for the dynamic p–y curves for cohesionless soils. The proposed model characterizes the backbone of dynamic p–y curves based on the three leading parameters (initial stiffness Kpy, ultimate resistance pu, and degree of nonlinearity n). The numerical analyses showed that the p–y curve nonlinearity mainly depends on the employed modulus reduction curves of soils. In the model, the degree of nonlinearity parameter (n) was directly related to the soil parameter γr which solely represents the modulus reduction curve of soils. In this regard, by correlating the dynamic p–y curves to the reference strain, the dependence on various dynamic soil parameters was diminished. The validation analyses performed in structural analysis software demonstrated that the proposed dynamic p–y model is capable of estimating the pile and structure response under earthquake loading more accurately by incorporating the hysteretic nonlinear soil behavior.

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The dataset generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledment

The authors would like to thank Dr. Amin Rahmani and Dr. Mahdi Taiebat for providing the centrifuge test data given in Gohl (1991). The authors very much appreciate the support by Dr. Akihiro Takahashi and Dr. Dan M. Ghiocel in the scope of the research (Tubitak) project. In addition, the authors wish to thank the reviewers for greatly improving the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) under Grant No. 119M624 and project title "Development of Lateral Load Resistance-Deflection Curves for Piles in Sands under Earthquake Excitation".

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The authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

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Correspondence to E. Ece Eseller-Bayat.

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Alver, O., Eseller-Bayat, E.E. A dynamic p–y model for piles embedded in cohesionless soils. Bull Earthquake Eng 21, 3297–3320 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-023-01677-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-023-01677-z

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