Evaluation of the Dynamic P-Y Curves of Soil-Pile System in Liquefiable Ground

Various approaches have been developed for the dynamic response analysis of piles. In one of the approaches, the soil-pile interaction is approximated by using parallel nonlinear springs, namely the p-y curves. Currently available p-y curve recommendations are based on static and cyclic lateral load tests. Other researchers have attempted to extend the p-y curves by incorporating the effects of liquefaction on soil-pile interaction and derived scaling factors of p-y curves to account fur the liquefaction. However, opinions on the scaling factors vary. In this study, the sealing factors, which reflect the variation of the elastic moduli of surrounding soils, were established combining the relationship between excess pore pressures and the natural frequencies of a soil-pile system obtained from Ig shaking table tests and the relationship between the elastic moduli of surrounding soils and the natural frequencies of a soil-pile system obtained from numerical analyses. As a result, the scaling factors were presented in an exponential function.