Analytical solution for longitudinal vibration of a floating pile in saturated porous media based on a fictitious saturated soil pile model

Abstract Based on Biot’s theory of wave propagation in saturated porous media, a new analytical approach for the vertical vibration of a floating pile in saturated viscoelastic soil is proposed, by combining the differential operator method with a fictitious saturated soil pile (FSSP) model. As an extended fictitious soil pile model, the FSSP model can fully consider the wave propagation in saturated soil with limit thickness beneath pile toe. The analytical solution for the velocity admittance of pile head is derived by introducing the completely coupled conditions at the pile-soil interface. The accuracy of the proposed approach and relevant solutions are degenerated and subsequently verified via comparisons with previous solutions. In addition, comparative analyses are further carried out to examine the effects of the porosity and shear modulus of soil as well as the layer thickness of the saturated soil layer beneath pile toe on the dynamic behavior of the floating pile. It is indicated that the presented approach and relevant solutions provide a more wide-ranging application for vertical vibration problems of a floating pile in saturated soil, which can be degenerated for the vertical vibration problems of a floating pile in single-phase soil or an end-bearing pile in saturated soil.