Influence of the sloping ground conditions and the subsequent shaking events on the pile group response subjected to kinematic interactions for a liquefiable sloping ground

Abstract

The soil-pile kinematic interaction under large nonlinearity, including soil liquefaction, represents a complex phenomenon that depends on many unforeseen factors. This paper presents the results of dynamic centrifuge tests carried out considering varying sloping inclination angles for a liquefiable ground subjected to four successive earthquake shakings having an increasing amplitude of acceleration. The results indicated the ground surface sloping inclinations to have a significant influence on the kinematic bending moment response of the piles. The significantly larger kinematic moments were generated on the downslope pile compared to the upslope pile highlighting the non-existence of shadowing effects during the lateral spreading for a liquefiable sloping ground. The kinematic moments generated during the first shaking, having predominant lateral spreading were substantially larger than the following three shakings, indicating the complex kinematic interaction to depend not only on the amplitude of base excitation; but mostly on the magnitude of lateral spreading. Moreover, the influences of the generated E.P.W.P on the pile response was studied and it was found that the piles may receive maximum kinematic moments around the occurrence of liquefaction to the time of initiation of dissipation phase of the generated E.P.W.P.