A new dynamic interaction factor for the analysis of pile groups subjected to vertical dynamic loads

tau his paper presents an analytical method for calculating the steady-state impedance factors of pile groups of arbitrary configuration subjected to harmonic vertical loads. The derived solution allows considering the effect of the actual pile geometry on the contribution of pile-soil-pile interaction to the response of the group, via the introduction of a new dynamic interaction factor, defined on the basis of soil resistance instead of pile displacements. The solution is first validated against a published solution for single piles that accounts for the effect of pile geometry on the generated ground vibrations. Accordingly, we show that the derived soil attenuation factor agrees well with existing solutions for pile groups in the high frequency range, but considerable differences are observed in both the stiffness and damping components of the computed impedance when the relative spacing between piles decreases. Numerical results obtained for typical problem parameters suggest that ignoring pile geometry effects while estimating the contribution of pile-soil-pile interaction in the response may lead to inaccurate results, even for relative large pile group spacings.