Numerical analysis of wave propagation and vibration attenuation effects of periodic scattering piles in unsaturated poroviscoelastic ground

The elastic wave propagation and vibration attenuation zones for periodically scattering piles in unsaturated ground were investigated using Finite-Element Method (FEM) and Bloch periodic theory. The unsaturated ground was modelled by unsaturated poroviscoelastic medium with the weak form governing equations derived from the mass and momentum conservative equations using Galerkin method and Fourier transform. The quadratic polynomial eigenvalue equations for the unsaturated medium were obtained using the Bloch periodic theory, and solved by FEM for the complex eigenvalues to evaluate the band gaps of the pile-soil system. The eigenvalue bands combined with the frequency response function were used to analyse the mitigation effects of piles in unsaturated ground with different soil properties and piles parameters. This research found that the pile-soil system has three propagational waves, in which the shear wave and the slow longitudinal wave carry low-frequency vibrations that undermine the attenuation effects of the piles barrier. The increasing soil saturation degree affects the attenuation effects by reducing the soil modulus and increasing the fluid content. And both of those two mechanisms reduce the frequency of the attenuation zones (AZ), which improves the low-frequency vibration attenuation, and reduces the width of AZ that could reduce the vibration mitigation effects.