A generalized hysteresis model for biaxial response of pile foundations in sands

We present the development and calibration of a macroelement model that captures the response of piles in cohesionless soils subjected to biaxial lateral loading. The model is founded on actual physical mechanism of soil resistance and provides the framework for extending a uniaxial model to biaxial case by means of a single cross-stiffness parameter. Both upper and lower bounds for the cross-stiffness parameter are also presented. The model is calibrated and verified using three-dimensional finite element (FE) simulations of soil-pile interaction for uniformly prescribed displacement along the pile length. Comparison of predictions from uniaxial and biaxial models with the FE results for transient loading indicates that the response assuming no coupling between the two horizontal directions for biaxial loading can differ significantly from the ‘true’ response for some cases. Accounting for coupling in the lateral direction, the proposed model captures the transverse pile response with very good accuracy while retaining the simplicity and computational efficiency of macroelement formulations compared to 3D FE analyses.

► Biaxial dynamic non-linear macroelement for pile soil–structure interaction analyses. ► Computationally efficient formulation by adding cross-stiffness parameter to uniaxial. ► Validation by comparison with three-dimensional finite element analyses.