Application of p-y approach in analyzing pile foundations in frozen ground overlying liquefiable soils

摘要

Two major earthquakes in Alaska, namely the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake and the 2002 Denali Earthquake, occurred in winter seasons when the ground crust was frozen. None of the then-existing foundation types was able to withstand the force from the lateral spreading of frozen crust. This paper presents results from the analysis of pile foundations in frozen ground overlying liquefiable soil utilizing the Beam-on-Nonlinear-Winkler-Foundation (BNWF) (or p-y approach). P-multipliers were applied on traditional sandy soil p-y curves to simulate soil strength degradation during liquefaction. Frozen soil p-y curves were constructed based on a model proposed in a recent study and the frozen soil mechanical properties obtained from testing of naturally frozen soils. Pile response results from the p-y approach were presented along with those from fluid-solid coupled Finite Element (FE) modeling for comparison purpose. Finally, the sensitivity of pile response to frozen soil parameters was investigated and a brief discussion is presented.