The role of soil stiffness non-linearity in 1D pile driving simulations

Drivability studies and determination of pile static capacity from driving resistance are an integral part of present foundation engineering practice. The success of both pile driving simulations and back-calculation of static resistance from pile driving resistance (signal matching analyses) depends on the model used for the interaction of the shaft and base of the pile with the soil. In this paper, a set of advanced base and shaft dynamic reaction models is formulated that accounts explicitly for soil stiffness non-linearity. Comparisons between predictions of the proposed soil reaction models and of various existing reaction models used in practice with measured pile driving data from two well-instrumented field cases allow assessment both of the importance of stiffness non-linearity in accurate pile driving simulations and of the usefulness of various levels of sophistication in the shaft and base reaction models.