Finite element modeling of soil-pile response subjected to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading in a large-scale shake table experiment

This paper presents two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) modeling of a large-scale shake table test conducted at the E-Defense shake table facility in Japan. This study explores the efficiency of 2D effective stress analyses to predict the behavior of soil-pile systems subjected to liquefaction and lateral spreading using the library of existing constitutive models and the prescribed parameters. The coupled soil-water FE model was developed in OpenSees and the analysis results are compared with measured data from the shake table experiment with the main emphasis on the response of liquefied soil and the demand applied to the piles as well as the sheet-pile quay wall. By examining the numerical analysis results, it is demonstrated that the FE model was able to reproduce the shake table model behavior with reasonable accuracy. Lastly, a mitigation strategy was modeled to investigate its effectiveness to reduce the demand on the soil-pile system.