STATIONARY DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF A CIRCULAR RIGID FOUNDATION PARTIALLY SUPPORTED BY A FLEXIBLE PILE AND INTERACTING WITH A HALF-SPACE

Abstract This article describes an analysis of the dynamic response of coupled soil-pile-foundation systems. The soil and the pile models were developed in previous research works. This article describes the influence of three issues on the vertical dynamic foundation response. First, the influence of the foundation bearing mechanism is investigated. The foundation may be supported by the soil, by the pile or by a combination of both supporting mechanisms. A parameter is introduced to allow for a continuous change in the foundation supporting mechanism. Second, the influence of the excitation mechanism is investigated. The considered excitation mechanism are external forces applied directly at the foundation and an incoming wave field impinging the soil-pile-foundation system. Third, the article investigates if, for both excitation mechanism, the response at the pile head only is able to describe properly the soil-pile response. The analysis presented in the article contributes to an in-depth understanding of the dynamic response of coupled soil-pile-foundation systems.