Impact of soft and stiff soil interlayers on the pile group dynamic response under lateral harmonic load

The interlayers, either softer or stiffer than the surrounding layers, are usually overlooked during field investigation due to the small thickness. They may be neglected through the analysis process for simplicity. However, they may significantly affect the dynamic behavior of the soil-foundation system. In this study, a series of 3D finite-element Direct-solution steady-state harmonic analyses were carried out using ABAQUS/CAE software to investigate the impacts of interlayers on the dynamic response of a cast in place pile group subjected to horizontal harmonic load. The experimental data of a 3X2 pile group testing was used to verify the numerical modeling. The effects of thickness, depth, and shear modulus of the interlayers on the dynamic response of the pile group are investigated. The simulations were conducted on both stiff and soft soils. It was found that the soft interlayers affect the frequency-amplitude curve of the system only in frequencies higher than 70% of the resonant frequency of the base soil. While, the effect of stiff interlayer in soft base soil started at frequency of 35% of the resonant frequency of the base soil. Also, it was observed that a shallow stiff interlayer increased the resonant amplitude by 11%, while a deep one only increased the resonant frequency by 7%. Moreover, a shallow soft interlayer increased the resonant frequency by 20% in soft base soils, whereas, it had an effect as low as 6% on resonant amplitude. Also, the results showed that deep soft interlayers increased the resonant amplitude by 17 to 20% in both soft and stiff base soils due to a reduction in lateral support of the piles. In the cases of deep thick, soft interlayers, the resonant frequency reduced significantly, i.e., 16 to 20%. It was found that the stiff interlayers were most effective on the amplitude and frequency of the pile group.