Abstract:This paper investigated the chaotic motion for a nonlinear viscoelastic pile subjected to a periodical axial force considering the ground soil motion. The material of the pile was assumed to obey the nonlinear Leaderman viscoelastic relation. The equations for the ground soil motion satisfying the Winkler condition and the equations for the transverse motion of pile were derived as the coupled nonlinear integropartialdifferential equations. The equations were simplified into ordinary differential equations by the Galerkin method. Numerical results indicated that there were lots of dynamical behaviors including chaotic motion in the viscoelastic piles.