Equivalent Plastic Hinge Length of Extended Pile-Shafts embedded in Sand

摘要

Under strong seismic excitation, the extended pile-shaft will inevitably form a plastic hinge in itsrnunderground portion. The underground damage is difficult for post-earthquake restoration and mayrncause large residual displacement at the top of the pile-shaft. In this regard, the ductile behavior,rnespecially the characterization of the underground plastic hinge needs to be investigated. In thisrnpaper, a Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF)-based finite element (FE) modelrnembedded in a homogeneous sand layer was developed in the Open Sees platform and calibrated byrnan in-situ full-scale test. This study focused on the effect of different structural and soil parametersrnon the equivalent plastic hinge lengths(EPHLs) of extended pile-shafts. Results indicate that thernEPHLs of piles are affected by many parameters of pile-soil systems. A typical range of EPHLs ofrnthe pile is also obtained from the parametric study.