Nonlinear analysis of 3D seismic interaction of soil–pile–structure systems and application

To investigate more precisely the seismic response of interactive soil–pile–structure systems, a three-dimensional finite element subsystem methodology with an advanced plasticity-based constitutive model for soils has been developed. The structure subsystem is represented by space frame elements while the pile–soil subsystem is idealized as an assemblage of solid elements. By means of the δ*-version of the hierarchical single surface (HiSS) modelling approach for cyclic behavior of soft clays, tangent matrices of the soil properties are formulated with distinct constitutive laws for individual stress–strain regimes such as virgin loading, unloading, and reloading. A successive-coupling, incremental solution scheme in the time domain is created to take account of both inertial and kinematic soil–pile–structure interactions simultaneously. The seismic inputs can be any combination of three-dimensional motions. The proposed methodology may be used to analyse the seismic responses of structures for different support excitations such as rigid ground motion, interactive pile-foundation motion, and, for long span structures, non-uniform free-field motion.