Seismic behavior of pile foundations in unsaturated soils

Earthquakes have caused significant damage to civil engineering structures worldwide due inadequate lateral load capacity and excessive deformation of pile foundations supporting these structures. The seismic performance interacting with unsaturated soils could be affected by changes in matric suction the moisture content variation induced seasonal weather or water table fluctuations. Hence, main objective this study is investigate effects soil conditions on response a pile-soil system silty clay soils. This utilized stand-alone finite element computer code called DYPAC (Dynamic Piles Analysis Code) developed using Beams Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) approach. Free field displacements p-y curve parameters, inputs needed for analyses, were updated based variations. found that can significantly influence piles soils, especially as becomes drier transition zone. best pile, which minimum displacement, happened zone between fully saturated nearly dry conditions.