Energy exchange between piled structures through the soil

Resumo

This work presents a study on the energy transfer between piled structures. For this analysis, two
structures, supported by buried pile groups, interact with each other through the soil. A stationary external load is
applied to one of the structures, and its effect is felt by the other structure solely through the energy transmitted
through the soil. The soil is modeled as a three-dimensional halfspace, and the piles through the impedance matrix
method. The structure is modeled via classical finite element discretizations, which enables arbitrarily-shaped
structures to be considered. Coupling between the two systems is obtained by imposing continuity and equilibrium
conditions at their interface. Selected results are shown for different geometric parameters of the piled structures.