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The seismic response of pile-supported offshore structures is strongly affected by the nonlinear behavior of the supporting piles. Nonlinear response of piles is the most important source of potentially nonlinear dynamic response of offshore platforms due to earthquake excitations. It is often necessary to perform dynamic analysis of offshore platforms that accountsfor soil nonlinearity, discontinuity condition at pile soil interfaces, energy dissipation through soil radiation damping and structural non linear behaviors of piles.In this paper, an attempt is made to develop an inexpensive and practical procedure compatible with readily available structural analysis software for estimating the lateral response of flexible piles embedded in layered soil deposits subjected to seismic loading. In the proposed model a BNWF (Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation) approach is used consisting of simple nonlinear springs, dash pots and contact elements. Gapping and caving-in conditions at the pile-soil interfaces are also considered using special interface elements. This model was incorporated into a Finite Element program (ANSYS), which was used to compute the response of laterally excited piles. A linear approach was used for seismic free field ground motion analysis. The computed responses compared well with the Centrifuge test results.This paper deals with the effects of free field ground motion analysis on seismic non linear behavior of embedded piles. Different parts of a BNWF (Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation) model, together with quantitative and qualitative findings and conclusions for dynamic nonlinear response of offshore piles, are discussed and addressed in detail. The proposed BNWF model (only using the existing features of the available general finite element software) could easily be implemented in a more comprehensive model of nonlinear seismic response analysis of pile supported offshore platforms.

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This study was conducted to determine the effect of vibration on the curing and compressive strength of lightweight air-trapped

soil (ATS). ATS is manufactured by mixing cement with water and sand and injecting bubbles into the mixture. It is light as

compared to regular soil, can reduce the weight on the ground, and has high fluidity. If ATS is used at construction sites with

many vibration sources, such as pile driving, blasting, and construction machinery, the effect of vibration needs to be seriously

considered. If a road is expanded using ATS to reduce traffic congestion, the ATS quality may decrease because of vibration

generated by traffic moving on the road. In particular, because ATS contains many air bubbles and needs time for curing, the

effect of vibration can be greater than expected. Therefore, the effect of vibration on ATS was evaluated during the curing process

by conducting unconfined compression tests on samples prepared with different values of variables including vibration velocity,

starting vibration time, and mixing ratio. Vibration velocities of 0.25 and 0.50 cm/s did not greatly affect the strength. However,

vibration velocities of above 2.50 cm/s significantly affected the decrease in strength, and the starting vibration time also had a

clear effect on specimens cured for less than 2 hours.

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The ground improvement using Plastic Board Drain (PBD) in soft soil was undertaken by sand mat formation, PBD installation, preloading surcharge, and removal of surcharge. During this procedure, the sand mat formation induced an initial settlement. However, it was very difficult to estimate that settlement due to PBD installation, which frequently destroyed the instruments installed in the ground. Consequently, the initial settlement was not properly included in total settlement. In this study, the initial settlement was estimated using ground level measurement and cone penetration test. Both predicted almost the same amount of initial settlement. The initial settlement is linearly increased with the depth of the sand mat. The degree of consolidation and the time of surcharge removal were estimated using the settlement included the initial settlement. Correct estimation of initial settlement is very important because it is a critical factor, which affects total settlement and the time of surcharge removal. If the initial settlement is not considered, the preloading surcharge may be overloaded or the time of surcharge removal may be predicted incorrectly. Consequently, the prediction of settlement, which requires to management of construction procedure of the project, may be wrong

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Pile penetration and rebound amount measurements during pile driving are important in analysis of penetration and bearing characteristics of piles and for assurance of pile installation quality. Traditional manual measurement of penetration and rebound of piles exposes engineers under unfavorable environment of injury risk and significant vibration and noise. To improve accuracy of pile penetration and rebound measurements and to ensure safety of engineers during pile driving, the close-range photogrammetry approach was implemented. For the track of three-dimensional spatial information of one point on the pile during driving, a series of stereo pair images of the point attached on a pile is required using more than two camera systems at different locations. In this study, two charge coupled device cameras were used to obtain stereo images. Robust measurements and reliable results can be guaranteed by the constrained geometry of close-range photogrammetry. From the field implementation, it was found that the newly developed pile penetration and rebound measurement system is accurate and safe.