2d fem analyses for the evaluation of seismic performance of single pile and pile group-supported structure in liquefiable soil

Usually, pile foundations are designed solely to resist the axial load. This simple approach neglects the effects of static, cyclic and/or dynamic lateral loads. Pile-soil interaction during a real earthquake is still now an open issue to be solved and the problem complexity increase in case of liquefiable soil conditions. Despite some methods are available most of them considers that soil behaves like a linear elastic material and the pile-soil interaction is modelled using Winkler springs. Herein, the pile-soil interaction problem has been studied using the FEM code, Plaxis2D, in which liquefiable layers can be modelled with two different advanced constitutive models (UBC3D-PLM, PM4Sand). FEM analyses have been carried out on a single pile and on a pile-supported structure model. The numerical study has been realized to investigate about the effect of liquefying layer thickness, earthquake magnitude, significant duration, intensity and maximum acceleration, on single pile and pile-supported structure performance.