Abstract
Simulation of the in-situ behavior of pile foundation is necessary in the seismic design and assessment for target structural integrity and performance during earthquakes. Generally, the pile behavior is governed by its deformation. For commonly used flexible piles, this deformation is observed to be significantly greater near the ground surface and becomes negligible with increasing depth. This region of significant deformation is defined as the active pile length, La. To simply investigate the behavior response of pile embedded in a homogeneous sandy soil, a plane strain condition using the 2D finite element method in nonlinear analysis was done. The subloading tij model is used to model the elasto-plastic behavior of the soil and the pile is modeled as a 2D continuum-based beam element. Based on the rigorous solution, piles reach the ultimate state of its side soil under large lateral deformations. In this case, a soil wedge can be observed being pushed up along this active pile length. Therefore, a simplified method using the active pile length as a key parameter to describe the ultimate lateral resistance of piles embedded in sand is presented for more practical approach in the seismic design and assessment of piles.
