Inelastic Response Spectrum for Seismic Soil Pile Structure Interaction

Structures resting on deep foundations like pile groups are subjected to entirely different kind of vibrations than those resting on shallow foundations, due to the inherent variations in the ground motions experienced at various levels of the foundation. The present work tries to generate response spectrum for single-pile supported structures using inelastic dynamic soil-pile interaction analysis. In the numerical model, the soil nonlinearity includes both separation at soil-pile interface and the plasticity of the near-field soil. The radiation boundary condition is also incorporated in the form of a series of far-field dampers which absorb the out-going waves. Inelastic response spectra for the structure, represented by a SDOF system, is generated after applying the synthetic time histories compatible with design (input) response spectra (as per IS 1893:2002-part I) at the base of pile to investigate the effects of ground response analysis including kinematics and inertial interaction between soil- pile system. It is found that a structure supported by pile foundations should be designed for larger seismic forces/ accelerations than those obtained from the design spectrum given in IS 1893:2002-Part I. The verification of the developed MATLAB program is reported towards the end, using results from commercial Finite Element software ABAQUS.