2009 First International Conference on Computational Inteligence, Communication System and Network
Dynamic Interaction Analysis of Soil and End Bearing Pile
Using Boundary Element Model Coupled with Finite Element Model
Paulus Karta Wijaya
Parahyangan Catholic University
paulusk@home.unpar.ac.id
paulusk@bdg.centrin.net.id
Abstract
Dynamic interaction analysis of an end bearing pile
and soil has been analyzed using Boundary Element
Method coupled with the Finite Element Method. The
system considered is an end bearing single pile
embeded in soil laying on a bed rock. The bedrock is
considered as a rigid material. The system is subjected
to upward propagating harmonic shear wave. The
displacement of the pile has to be found. The pile is
modelled using finite elements and the soil is modelled
with boundary element. In this analysis, the domain of
integration assumes that the pile surface is a plane. A
computer program using FORTRAN is developed for
the purpose of this study. A parametric study is made
in this study . The parameter is nondimensional
frequency, slenderness ratio and ratio modulus of
elasticity. Conclussions of this study is the ratio of pile
length to wave length determined the respons of the
pile.
1. Introduction
Interaction between soil and pile under dynamic
loading has been the subject of many researchers. The
method that has been used are finite element method
and boundary elemen method. Flores et al [6] studied
the seismic response of piles using the finite element
method. Mamoon used the boundary element method
to analyze the response of a floating pile (without
superstructure) to traveling SH waves [7]. In this study,
Mamoon used the analytical solution of beam vibration
for the pile.
In this paper, the dynamic interaction analysis of an
end bearing pile and the surounded soil has been
analyzed using boundary element coupled with finite
element. The soil is modeled with boundary elements.
The pile is modeled with finite elements. The system is
subjected to upward propagating harmonic shear wave.
The response of the system will be sought.
If the waves are not harmonic, the soil free field
motion is decomposed into a sum of harmonic waves
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by using the discrete Fourier series and the response is
the superposition of each harmonic response.
2. The Model of the system
The system considered is an end bearing pile
embeded in a layer of soil laying on a bedrock. The
system is subjected to an upward propagating shear
wave with unit amplitude at the bedrock. The model is
shown in Figure 1. The pile is assumed to be perfectly
bonded to the soil so there will be no gap and slip at
the interface of the pile and soil. The tip of the
foundation is restraint on the bedrock so that the
displacement of the tip of the pile will always the same
as the displacement of the bedrock. The soil is assumed
to be a viscoelastic material, isotropic and
homogeneous and the bedrock is assumed to be a rigid
material. The soil is modeled by boundary elements.
The pile is modeled by finite elements using plane
frame elements. The motion of the waves is in the
X1 X 3 plane.
The surface of the soil
X1
The pile
X2
Bed rock
X3
Figure 1 The model of the system
Due to interaction forces between soil and the pile,
scattering wave will be propagated from the soil-pile
interface. Moreover, the motion of the soil will be a
superposition of the free field motion and the scattered
motion.
Cartesian coordinates will be used and the axes are
as shown in Figure 1
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3. Integral equation for the soil X in the j direction; U*ij (, X, ) is the displacement

The governing equation of motion of an elastic fundamental solution; Pij* (, X, ) is the traction
medium can be written as follows [2] fundamental solution; is the boundary of the
ui
2 system; is the interior domain
( + ) u j, ji + u i, jj + bi = 0 (1)
t 2
where u i = u i ( X, t ) is the displacement of the soil with i =
4. Boundary element formulation
1,2,3; X is spatial coordinate; t is time; bi is the body
forces; and are the Lames constant. The system considered has two boundary. The first
For harmonic motion, the displacement of the soil one is the surface of the soil which there is no traction
can be expressed as on it and the second one is the interface of the soil and
the bedrock which there is traction on it. The
u i ( X, , t ) = U i ( X, ) eit (2) fundamental solution that is used is the fundamental
where U i ( X) is the displacement amplitude in i solution for the halfspace so that the boundary
direction, t is time and is the frequency of the wave, condition on the surface of the halfspace has already
X is the coordinate vector of a point. been fullfiled. The fundamental solution used in this
study is the fundamental solution found by Banerjee
For viscoelastic material in harmonic motion,
[1]. There is no discretization on the surface of the soil.
material damping can be represented with complex
But the interface of the soil and the bedrock has to be
elastic moduli [3],
discretized. The domain of integration is assumed to be
* = ( 1 + i ) (3) a plane instead of the surface of the pile. The
interaction forces act at this surface. The thin plane is
* = ( 1 + i ) (4)
the domain where the integration will be performed. It
Where is the damping ratio. is a model for soil pile interface. The width of the thin
Substitute equation (2) into equation (1) and plane is the diameter of the pile. Then the integral
replacing elastic constant with equation (3) and (4) and equation becomes,
after elimination of the time function,
Uij (, X, ) Pj (X, ) d1(X) +
*
cij U i (, ) =
( + ) U j, ji + Ui, jj + Ui + Bi = 0
* * * 2
(5) 1
The integral equation for equation (5) is [2]
Uij (, X, ) Tj (X, ) d2 (X)
*
c ij U i (, ) + Pij (, X, ) Ui (X, ) d =
* (8)
2

U*ij (, X, ) Pi ( X, ) d( X) +
x1

Uij (, X, ) Bi (X, ) d(X)

*
(6) x2
Soil-bedrock
Where interface

cij = ij + Lim Pij (, X, ) d( X)
*
(7)



x3
is the field coordinate vector; X is the source point
coordinate vector; U i (, ) is the displacement
amplitude at in the i direction; U j ( X, ) is the Figure 2. Thin plane to model the pile

displacement amplitude at X in the j direction; Where 1 is the soil pile interface dan 2 is the soil-
Pj ( X, ) is the traction amplitude at X in the j bedrock interface. Pj is traction at the soil-bedrock
direction; B j ( X, ) is the amplitude of body forces at interface and Tj is the soil-pile interaction forces.

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 2009 First International Conference on Computational Inteligence, Communication System and Network

The interaction forces is harmonic, integration along the element. The superscript S refers
i t to scattered motion, subscript s refers to soil, subscript
t j (, t , X 3 ) = Tj (, X 3 ) e (9)
b refers to bedrock.
For scattered motion, displacement amplitude at
Where t j is the soil pile interaction force. Ti is the
base rock is zero, then equation 14 can be solved for
amplitude of the interaction forces in j direction, is
Tsb ,
frequency, t is time, e is natural constant, i is imaginary
1
constant. TSb = G bb G bs Ts (15)
Substitute equation (15) into equation (13),
5. Discretization of the system
U Ss = G m TSs (16)
Equation 8 will be applied to the scattered motion. The Where,
scattered motion is caused by interaction forces
between the soil and the pile. Discretization will be
( 1
G m = G ss G sb G bb G bs ) (17)
done on the soil-pile interface and on the soil-bedrock
interface. In actual fact, 2 is infinite. But since Pj is 6. Free field motion
smaller at the point far from the pile, the domain of
The free field harmonic motion of the soil with unit
integration 2 can be taken to be limited at a certain amplitude on the surface can be expressed as
distance from the pile. The domain 2 is discretized u1 (X 3 , t ) = cos kX 3 cos t (18)
using square elements. The traction at one element is The total displacement of soil is the sum of the free
assumed to be constant and the node is at the centroid field displacement and the scattered displacement,
of the element. The soil pile interface (the thin plane)
U sT = U Ss + U sf (19)
is devided into n element. The interaction forces is
considered to be constant in the x 2 direction of the TsT = TSs + Tsf (20)
thin plane. The nodes are on the midle of it. Along the After substituting Equations (19) and (20), equation
length of the element, the interaction forces are (16) becomes,
considered distributed linearly.
U sT = G m TsT B s (21)
=
t io N TSn (10)
where,
Where,
B s = G m Tsf U sf (22)
N is the interpolation matrix, TSn is vector of nodal
amplitude of soil pile interaction forces on element n.
7. Finite element formulation
N 0 N2 0
N= 1
N 2
(11)
N 1 Because the motion of the waves is on the X1 X 3
Where, plane, the displacements of the pile are also on the
N1 = (1 ) / 2 ) (12.a) X1 X 3 plane. Thus the pile can be modeled using a
N 2 = (1 + ) / 2 ) (12.b) plane frame element. The element stiffness matrix can
After discretization and integration, Equation 8 be written as,
gives the matrix equation,
USs = G TSs + G TSb (13)
ss sb
USb = G TS + G TSb (14)
bs s bb
S
Where U s is the vector of nodal scattered amplitude
displacements at soil-pile interface, TSs is the vector of
nodal amplitude interaction forces, U Sb is the vector of
nodal scattered amplitude displacement at bedrock,
TSb is the vector of nodal traction at bedrock. G are
the coefficient matrices which are the result of

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 2009 First International Conference on Computational Inteligence, Communication System and Network

12EI - 6EI - 12EI - 6EI TsT = T p (27.b)

3 0 2 3
0
L L L L2 Multiply equation (21) with K ,
0 EA EA
0 0 0
L L K U sT = K G m TsT K B s (28)
- 6EI 4EI 6EI 2EI
2 0 0 Substitute equation (23.a) and (23.b) into (22) and then
k= L L L2 L
substitute the result into equation (24),
- 12EI 0
6EI 12EI
0
6EI
M TsT = K G m TsT K B s (29)
L3 L2 L3 L2
EA EA After rearangement equation (29) becomes,
0 0 0 0
L L Q TsT = S (30)
- 6EI 0
2EI 6EI
0
4EI
Where
L2 L L2 L
Q =KGM (31)
(23)
S = K Bs (32)
The mass matrix for the pile is a consistent mass,
that is TsT is calculated from equation (30) and then U sT is
156 0 22 L 54 13L
0 calculated from equation (21).
0 140 0 0 700

A L 22L 0 4L2 13L2 0 3L2 9. Result of the analysis
m=
420 54 0 13L2 156 0 22L
0 70 0 0 140 0 The response of a single end bearing pile due to
upward propagating harmonic shear waves has been
13L 0 3L2 22L 0 4L2
analysed using the presented method. The free field
(24) displacement amplitude at the tip of the pile is taken
The interaction forces are the loads acting on the unity. Some parametric studies has been performed.
pile. The finite element equation after elimination the The parameters are expressed in nondimensional form.
time function at element level for the pile can be These are the non-dimensional frequency, the
expressed as slenderness of the pile, the ratio of modulus of
k d = p tp (25) elasticity.
where k is the dynamic element stiffness matrix for The non-dimensional frequency is,
D
harmonic motion, d is the element nodal displacement o = (33)
cs
vector, t p is the vector of nodal interaction forces, p
The slenderness of the pile is,
is the coefficient matrix. L
After assembling the element equation into a p = (34)
global equation, the finite element equation for the pile D
and structure can be written as The ratio of modulus of elasticity is the ratio of the
K D = M Tp (26) modulus of elasticity of the pile and the modulus of
elasticity of the soil,
Where K is the global stiffness matrix, D is nodal
Ep
displacement of the pile, M is coefficient matrix, T p Er = (35)
Es
is nodal interaction forces.of the pile. where is the frequency of the waves, D is the
diameter of the pile, c s is shear wave velocity, L is
8. Interaction equation
the length of the pile, E p is the modulus of elasticity
Interaction forces acting on pile is opposite with of the pile and E s is the modulus of elasticity of the
interaction forces acting on soil, but the direction of soil.
the displacement on soil-pile interface are the same for The free field displacement is taken unity at the end
soil and the pile. It can be writen, of the pile. The results are presented in figure 3 to
U sT = D (27.a) figure 7 in compact form. Figure 1 presents the
displacement amplitude of the end bearing pile. The

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 2009 First International Conference on Computational Inteligence, Communication System and Network

free field displacement and the ratio of displacement of
the pile to the free field displacement are also
presented. Figure 4 presents the influence of the
slenderness of the pile. Figure 5 and 6 present the
influence of ratio of modulus of elasticity. Figure 7
presents the ratio of displacement amplitude of the top
of the pile to free filed displacement amplitude of the
ground U xg / U fg , as function of nondimensional
frequency.
10. Discussion
From Figure 3 to Figure 7, it can be concluded that
the displacement amplitude of pile is always smaller
than the free field displacement amplitude. From
Figure 3 it can be seen that the ratio of the
displacement amplitude to the free field displacement
amplitude, U x / U f , is relatively constant along the
pile. The shape of the displacement amplitude curve is
the finite element method, since discretization only at
the soil-pile interface, the degree of freedom is much
lower than the finite element method. From parametric
study of a soil-pile system, it comes to the following
conclussions.
The displacement amplitude of the end bearing pile
depends on the ratio of the length of the pile and the
wave length. The smaller the ratio, the higher the
displacement amplitude. The end condition of the end
bearing pile influence the response of the pile for
higher modulus of elasticity ratio. The higher the
nondimensional frequency, the smaller the
displacement amplitude.
12. Sugestion for further research.
For future work, the method should be developed
for interaction between soil-pile and upper structure.

Displacement Amplitude
the same with the shape of the free field displacement. 1.0 Ux / Uf
It means that the wave length of the pile displacement
is the same as the free field displacement. Figure 4 0.8 Uf
shows the influence of slendeness ratio. For the same 0.6
nondimensional frequency, the higher the slenderness,
the smaller the displacement. It can be seen from the 0.8
figure that for smaller slenderness the ratio of pile
length to the wave length is also smaller. It can be 0.2 Ux
concluded that for smaller ratio pile length to the wave
0.0
length, the displacement amplitude is higher. Figure 5 0.6 0.8
0 0.2 0.4 1.0
and Figure 6 show the influence of ratio of modulus of
elasticity E r . The displacement amplitude become Nondimensional Depth Z/L
smaller when E r is higher, but for E r greater than
Figure 3. Displacement amplitude of end bearing
10000, the displacement amplitude start to become pile for p = 80 and Er = 1000 and o = 0.3
higher. This is due to the end condition of the pile that
the displacement if the pile is forced to be the same to
the diaplcement of the bedrock. So that for stiffer pile,
the influence of the end condition is stronger. U x / U f
can be represented with ratio of displacement
amplitude at the top of the pile to free field
displacement amplitude at the ground, U xg / U fg .
Figure 7 shows ratio of displacement amplitude to free
field displacement at ground, U xg / U fg as function of
nondimensional frequency. The higher the frequency,
the smaller , U xg / U fg .

11. Conclussions
A method to analyze dynamic soil and end bearing
pile interaction using boundary element method
coupled with finite element method has been
presented. The method is more efficient compared to

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 2009 First International Conference on Computational Inteligence, Communication System and Network

p = 10 1.2
1.0
p = 30 1.0
Displacement Amplitude

p = 30
0.8 0.8

Uxg / Ufg
0.6 0.6
p = 10
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2 p = 80 0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.9 Nondimensional Frequency o

Non Dimensional Depth Z/L

Figure 7. Up / U g for L = 24 meter,
Figure 4. Displacement amplitude of end bearing 11. References
pile for various p , Er = 1000 and o = 0.3 .
[1] Banerjee,P.K., and S.M. Mamoon, (1989). "A
fundamental solution due to periodic point force in the
Er = 1 interior of an elastic half-space" J. of Earthquake
Displacement Amplitude

1.0 Uf Engineering and Structural Dynamic, Nov.

0.8 [2] Banerjee,P.K. (2nd Ed,1994), The Boundary Element

Methods in Engineering , England, McGrawHill Book
0.6 Company Europe, p260.
Er = 100
0.4
[3] Christensen,R.M, (2nd Ed.),1982, Theory Of
0.2 Er = 1000 Viscoelasticity, An Introduction, New York, Academic
Press.
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 [4] Das,B.M.(1983), Fundamental of Soil Dynamics, New
York, Elsevier.
Nondimensional Depth Z/L
[5] Fan,K., G. Gazetas, A. Kaynia , E. Kausel, S. Ahmad,
Figure 5 Displacement amplitude of end bearing
(1991), "Kinematic Seismic Response Of Single Piles and
pile for p = 80 , o = 0.3 and various Er Pile Groups", Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE,
117(12), 1860-1879.
Er = 1E + 07
[6] Flores-Berrones,R., and R.V. Whitman, (1982), "Seismic
1.0 Er = 1E + 06
Displacement Amplitude

response of end bearing piles.", J. Geotech. Engrg. Div.,

ASCE, 108(4), 554-569.
0.8 Er = 1E + 05

Er = 1E + 04 [7] Mamoon,S.M., and S. Ahmad, (1990), " Seismic

0.6 Response of Piles To Obliquely Incident SH, SV, And P
Er = 1000 Waves", Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE,
0.4
116(2), 186-204.
0.2 [8] Novak,M.(1991). "Piles under dynamics loads." Proc. 2nd
0.0 Int. Conference on Recent Advances in Geotech. Earthquake
1.0 Engrg. and Soil Dynamics,III, Univ. of Missouri-Rolla. *
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Non dimensional depth Z/L
[9] Wolf,J.P. (1988), "Soil Structure Interaction in Time
Figure 6. Displacement amplitude for Domain", Prentice-Hall Inc.
End bearing pile p = 80 , o = 0.3
And various Er

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