Kinematic interaction factors of deep foundations with inclined piles

SUMMARY The beneficial or detrimental role of battered piles on the dynamic response of piled foundations has not been yet fully elucidated. In order to shed more light on this aspect, kinematic interaction factors of deep foundations with inclined piles, are provided for single-battered piles, as well as for 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 groups of piles subjected to vertically incident plane shear S waves. Piles are modelled as linear-elastic Bernoulli beams, whereas soil is assumed to be a linear, isotropic, homogeneous viscoelastic half-space. Different pile group configurations, pile-soil stiffness ratios, and rake angles are considered. The relevance and main trends observed in the influence of the rake angle on the kinematic interaction factors of the analysed foundations are inferred from the presented results. An important dependence of the kinematic interaction factors on the rake angle is observed together with the existence of an inclination angle at which cap rotation and excitation become out of phase in the low-to-mid frequency range. The existence of a small batter angle that provides minimum cap rotation is also shown. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.