Axial dynamics of floating piles in a viscoelastic soil stratum

A new analytical formulation is presented for the dynamic analysis of axially loaded floating piles embedded in a finite viscoelastic soil stratum overlying rigid bedrock using the two-parameter Vlasov–Leont’ev foundation model. The soil displacement field is expressed using separable functions, and the kinetic and potential energies of the pile–soil system are formulated based on elasticity theory. The governing equations are derived using the Extended Hamilton’s Principle and solved analytically through an iterative procedure. The proposed formulation is mathematically simple, computationally efficient, and accurately captures three-dimensional pile–soil interaction. The solution is verified and validated against published analytical and experimental results. A parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of stratum thickness, pile–soil stiffness ratio, pile–soil density ratio, and soil Poisson’s ratio on the dynamic pile-head response. The influence of these parameters on resonant and radiation frequencies is also investigated.