Pile Design Practice and Seismic Performance Concerns in Taiwan

[[abstract]]This paper introduces the current pile design practice in Taiwan with seismic performance concerns in demand. The current geotechnical code was published in 2001 based on traditional design methods. It has been found insufficient to satisfy the modern seismic concerns developed in recent years. As the performance-based design of geotechnical structures has been received local attentions since 2006, a number of works on PBD have been done and made great impacts to society. Chen et al. (2006) suggested that the performances of pile foundation could be categorized into three levels. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses can be applied according to the complexity of problem. Using the procedure of EQWEAP for single piles, the authors have conducted the PBEE analysis for single piles located in Taipei. Simplified procedures were used following the suggestions of Kramer (2008). The hazard curves on PGAs proposed by Cheng (2002) were adopted. The maximum pile displacement recorded at the pile head was chosen to be the engineering demand parameter in the analysis. For modern design with return periods of 30, 475 and 2500 years, the corresponding EDPs of the structure are reported. It is hoped that this paper can provide useful information for local engineers to fulfill the PBD on piles.[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20090602~20090602[[conferencelocation]]Tokyo, Japa