Vertical dynamic response of an inhomogeneous viscoelastic pile

The vertical dynamic response of an inhomogeneous viscoelastic pile embedded in layered soil subjected to axial loading has been investigated. The interaction between pile and soil is simulated by a general Voigt model, one that has been demonstrated by earlier investigators to be capable of representing the plane strain case of soil adequately. The analytical solutions of pile responses in the frequency domain are obtained by using the (two-sided) Laplace transform. The corresponding semi-analytical solutions in the time domain for the case of a pile subjected to an instantaneous half-sine exciting force applied at the pile top are obtained via Fourier transform inversion. Using these solutions, a parametric study of the influence of the pile and soil properties on the vertical dynamic responses has been undertaken. It is shown that an abrupt variation of the soil properties with depth cannot yield evident reflection signal that may lead geotechnical engineers to assess the pile integrity wrongly from the velocity curve of the pile top, and the influence of viscosity of the pile material on the response is different from that of the damping of the soil surrounding the pile. The theoretical model developed in the present paper has also been validated in field studies, where it is shown by means of three examples that the solution developed in this study has been adequately verified by comparison of the theoretical pile model and field measurements of the dynamic responses. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.