The foundation piles in karst areas have different mechanical properties from those in other areas. Targeting a critical highway bridge in a karst area, this paper designs two kinds of foundation pile models: friction pile, and KCSP, based on theories on dynamic tests. Then, shaking table tests were carried out to ascertain the features of pile strain distribution of KCSP under earthquakes. During the tests, a large laminar suspended shear box was adopted to mimic the boundary effect of soil. In addition, numerical simulations were conducted to disclose the effects of karst cave on pile strain. The test results indicate that: the peak strain of KCSP increased with the peak acceleration; For both KCSP and friction pile, the peak strain decreased first and then increased along the depth; The presence of karst cave can adversely affect the seismic response of foundation pile; The taller the karst cave, the larger the peak strain of the pile; the peak strain of KCSP was larger at the two ends, and smaller in the middle. The numerical analysis shows that: the peak strain of foundation pile in karst cave increased significantly with cave height; The peak strain of the pile passing through multiple caves was similar to that of the pile passing through only one cave, under the same cave height; But the multi-cave scenario differed from the single-cave scenario in peak strain distribution. The research results provide new insights into the seismic design of pile foundation of bridges in karst areas.
Seismic Response of Tunnel across Inactive Fault: Numerical Analysis