Pile-to-pile kinematic interaction factors for vertically-incident shear waves

Abstract

When studying the dynamic behaviour of pile group foundations, the total response of the system cannot be computed simply as the addition of the response of each individual pile because of the pileto-pile interaction effects. This interaction between the piles in the group is produced by the scattered field that the vibration of each pile generates. Pile-to-pile interaction factors [1] are generally used in order to measure these effects and are defined as the response of a ‘receiver’ pile to the diffracted field generated by a ‘source’ pile. There is a wide number of works in the literature concerning the interaction factors that are obtained by assuming a prescribed force or displacement at the head of the source pile, i.e. when the source pile is inertially loaded. However, the kinematic counterpart of this problem has received fewer attention. In the work at hand, kinematic pile-to-pile interaction factors are presented by assuming that the source pile is excited by vertically-incident shear waves.