Soil-Structure-Interaction Effect on Seismic Response of Bridges

Some benefit to design can be obtained from soil-foundation-interaction at bridge pier if a dependable estimation of the equivalent foundation stiffness can be established as a function of rotation demand. By modeling the foundation as a rigid pile-head supported by a group of deformable piles, it is the objective of this thesis is to study its characteristic resistance curve. In this regard several pushover analyses of a single pile under kinematic constraint at the point of connection with the overbearing pile-head were conducted, in order to observe the intensity and influence of the soil-pile interaction on the superstructure deformation demands when excited by ground motion events of increasing intensity. A sensitivity investigation is conducted to support the development of quantitative models for the coordinates of the milestone points of the resistance curve in terms of the important design variables.