Response of Tapered Piles under Lateral Harmonic Vibrations

Abstract

This paper presents a new method for analysis tapered piles under lateral harmonic vibration. The behavior of tapered piles is assumed to be as elastic and linear. The soil consists of some elastic horizontal layers that they are homogeneous, isotropic, and linearly visco–elastic. The pile is divided to some segments and the differential equation for a given desirable segment is obtained and solved. Then the dynamic complex stiffness parameters are derived for the pile head. Parametric studies have been performed to investigate the influence of pile geometry, soil properties, and loading details on pile-soil system amplitudes. It has been found that under lateral harmonic vibrations, with increasing the pile taper angle, the resonant amplitude decreases. In addition, it has been concluded that under lateral harmonic vibrations, a tapered pile experiences lower amplitude than a cylindrical pile of the same length and material volume.