The effect of farfield and nearfield earthquakes on the seismic behavior of micropile group in loose and dense granular soils

Studying the performance of micropile system as an effective, practical and affordable method for seismic retrofitting of the site and foundation and considering the different characteristics and effects of nearfield and farfield earthquakes on structures, justifies the need to study the performance of micropile group under nearfield and farfield earthquakes. In this research, using Opensees software, two types of loose (Dr =40%) and dense (Dr = 80%) granular soils with elastoplastic behavior and two reinforcement models including vertical and inclined micropiles with elastic behavior and concrete material was affected by three sets of farfield and nearfield earthquakes due to the shear wave velocity of the site (Vs30). The responses of the micropile group including horizontal displacement, acceleration and internal forces were studied and compared and important results were presented to use the micropile group in order to seismic retrofitting of areas close to and far from the epicenter. The results showed that the effect of near-fault records significantly increases the horizontal displacement, especially in loose granular site. The increase in lateral displacement due to near earthquakes compared to far earthquakes is 125% and 124% for the vertical and inclined micropile group in the loose granular structure and 15% and 13% for the vertical and inclined micropile group in the dense granular site, respectively. Also, the inclined micropile group shows almost similar performance in controlling horizontal displacements and better performance in controlling internal forces than the vertical micropile group.