• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권6호
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• pp.1369-1389
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• 2016

The soil-structure interaction effect significantly influences the design of multi-storey buildings subjected to lateral seismic loads. The shear walls are often provided in such buildings to increase the lateral stability to resist seismic loads. In the present work, the nonlinear soil-structure analysis of a G+5 storey RC shear wall building frame having isolated column footings and founded on deformable soil is presented. The nonlinear seismic FE analysis is carried out using ANSYS software for the building with and without shear walls to investigate the effect of inclusion of shear wall on the moments in the footings due to differential settlement of soil mass. The frame is considered to behave in linear elastic manner, whereas, soil mass to behave in nonlinear manner. It is found that the interaction effect causes significant variation in the moments in the footings. The comparison of non-interaction and interaction analyses suggests that the presence of shear wall causes significant decrease in bending moments in most of the footings but the interaction effect causes restoration of the bending moments to a great extent. A comparison is made between linear and nonlinear analyses to draw some important conclusions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.1-22
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• 2014

A seismic evaluation is made of the response to horizontal ground shaking of cantilever retaining walls using the finite element model in three dimensional space whose verification is provided analytically through the modal analysis technique in case of the assumptions of fixed base, complete bonding behavior at the wall-soil interface, and elastic behavior of soil. Thanks to the versatility of the finite element model, the retained medium is then idealized as a uniform, elastoplastic stratum of constant thickness and semi-infinite extent in the horizontal direction considering debonding behavior at the interface in order to perform comprehensive soil-structure interaction (SSI) analyses. The parameters varied include the flexibility of the wall, the properties of the soil medium, and the characteristics of the ground motion. Two different finite element models corresponding with flexible and rigid wall configurations are studied for six different soil types under the effects of two different ground motions. The response quantities examined incorporate the lateral displacements of the wall relative to the moving base and the stresses in the wall in all directions. The results show that the wall flexibility and soil properties have a major effect on seismic behavior of cantilever retaining walls and should be considered in design criteria of cantilever walls. Furthermore, the results of the numerical investigations are expected to be useful for the better understanding and the optimization of seismic design of this particular type of retaining structure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.309-320
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• 2018

In this paper, a numerical study using finite element method with considering soil-structure interaction was conducted to investigate the stress and deformation behavior of a sheet pile wall structure. In numerical model, one of the nonlinear elastic material constitutive models, Duncan-Chang E-v model, is used for describing soil behavior. The hard contact constitutive model is used for simulating the behavior of interface between the sheet pile wall and soil. The construction process of excavation and backfill is simulated by the way of step loading. We also compare the present numerical method with the in-situ test results for verifying the numerical methods. The numerical analysis showed that the soil excavation in the lock chamber has a huge effect on the wall deflection and stress, pile deflection, and anchor force. With the increase of distance between anchored bars, the maximum wall deflection and anchor force increase, while the maximum wall stress decreases. At a low elevation of anchored bar, the maximum wall bending moment decreases, but the maximum wall deflection, pile deflection, and anchor force both increase. The construction procedure with first excavation and then backfill is quite favorable for decreasing pile deflection, wall deflection and stress, and anchor forces.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.117-138
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• 2014

The main focus of the current study is to evaluate the dynamic behavior of a cantilever retaining wall considering backfill and soil/foundation interaction effects. For this purpose, a three-dimensional finite element model (FEM) with viscous boundary is developed to investigate the seismic response of the cantilever wall. To demonstrate the validity of the FEM, analytical examinations are carried out by using modal analysis technique. The model verification is accomplished by comparing its predictions to results from analytical method with satisfactory agreement. The method is then employed to further investigate parametrically the effects of not only backfill but also soil/foundation interactions. By means of changing the soil properties, some comparisons are made on lateral displacements and stress responses. It is concluded that the lateral displacements and stresses in the wall are remarkably affected by backfill and subsoil interactions, and the dynamic behavior of the cantilever retaining wall is highly sensitive to mechanical properties of the soil material.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.1255-1276
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• 2015

The importance of considering soil-structure interaction effect in the analysis and design of RC frame buildings is increasingly recognized but still not penetrated to the grass root level owing to various complexities involved. It is well established fact that the soil-structure interaction effect considerably influence the design of multi-storey buildings subjected to lateral seismic loads. The shear walls are often provided in such buildings to increase the lateral stability to resist seismic lateral loads. In the present work, the linear soil-structure analysis of a G+5 storey RC shear wall building frame resting on isolated column footings and supported by deformable soil is presented. The finite element modelling and analysis is carried out using ANSYS software under normal loads as well as under seismic loads. Various load combinations are considered as per IS-1893 (Part-1):2002. The interaction analysis is carried out with and without shear wall to investigate the effect of inclusion of shear wall on the total and differential settlements in the footings due to deformations in the soil mass. The frame and soil mass both are considered to behave in linear elastic manner. It is observed that the soil-structure interaction effect causes significant total and differential settlements in the footings. Maximum total settlement in footings occurs under vertical loads and inner footings settle more than outer footings creating a saucer shaped settlement profile of the footings. Each combination of seismic loads causes maximum differential settlement in one or more footings. Presence of shear wall decreases pulling/pushing effect of seismic forces on footings resulting in more stability to the structures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.601-619
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• 2017

Cantilever retaining wall movements generally depend on the intensity and duration of ground motion, the response of the soil underlying the wall, the response of the backfill, the structural rigidity, and soil-structure interaction (SSI). This paper investigates the effect of material properties on seismic response of backfill-cantilever retaining wall-soil/foundation interaction system considering SSI. The material properties varied include the modulus of elasticity, Poisson's ratio, and mass density of the wall material. A series of nonlinear time history analyses with variation of material properties of the cantilever retaining wall are carried out by using the suggested finite element model (FEM). The backfill and foundation soil are modelled as an elastoplastic medium obeying the Drucker-Prager yield criterion, and the backfill-wall interface behavior is taken into consideration by using interface elements between the wall and soil to allow for de-bonding. The viscous boundary model is used in three dimensions to consider radiational effect of the seismic waves through the soil medium. In the seismic analyses, North-South component of the ground motion recorded during August 17, 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake in Yarimca station is used. Dynamic equations of motions are solved by using Newmark's direct step-by-step integration method. The response quantities incorporate the lateral displacements of the wall relative to the moving base and the stresses in the wall in all directions. The results show that while the modulus of elasticity has a considerable effect on seismic behavior of cantilever retaining wall, the Poisson's ratio and mass density of the wall material have negligible effects on seismic response.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.85-107
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• 2012

The building frame and its foundation along with the soil on which it rests, together constitute a complete structural system. In the conventional analysis, a structure is analysed as an independent frame assuming unyielding supports and the interactive response of soil-foundation is disregarded. This kind of analysis does not provide realistic behaviour and sometimes may cause failure of the structure. Also, the conventional analysis considers infill wall as non-structural elements and ignores its interaction with the bounding frame. In fact, the infill wall provides lateral stiffness and thus plays vital role in resisting the seismic forces. Thus, it is essential to consider its effect especially in case of high rise buildings. In the present research work the building frame, infill wall, isolated column footings (open foundation) and soil mass are considered to act as a single integral compatible structural unit to predict the nonlinear interaction behaviour of the composite system under seismic forces. The coupled isoparametric finite-infinite elements have been used for modelling of the interaction system. The material of the frame, infill and column footings has been assumed to follow perfectly linear elastic relationship whereas the well known hyperbolic soil model is used to account for the nonlinearity of the soil mass.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제77권1호
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• pp.37-46
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• 2021

In this study, a method for free vibration analysis of wall-frame systems built on weak soil is proposed. In the development of the method, the wall-frame system that constitutes the superstructure was modeled as flexural-shear beam. In the study, it is accepted that the soil layers are isotropic, homogeneous and elastic, and the waves are only vertical propagating shear waves. Based on this assumption, the soil layer below is modeled as an equivalent shear beam. Then the differential equation system that represented the behavior of the whole system was written for both regions in a separate way. Natural periods were obtained by solving the differential equations by employing boundary conditions. At the end of the study, two examples were solved and the suitability of the proposed method to the Finite Element Method was evaluated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제60권3호
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• pp.433-453
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• 2016

During earthquake, the motion of ground is affected significantly by source characteristics, source-to-site path properties and local site conditions. Due to the influence of local soil conditions different places experience distinctive amplitude of surface ground motion. Ground response analysis of a specific site utilizing the borehole information at different locations is done in present study. The ground motion with the highest peak ground acceleration for this site obtained from the ground response analysis is used in finite element soil-structure interaction analysis of multi-storey shear wall buildings with various positions of shear walls. The variation in seismic response of buildings and advantageous position of shear wall are determined. The study reveals that providing shear wall at the core of buildings at the specific site is advantageous among all shear wall configurations considered.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제89권4호
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• pp.421-436
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• 2024

This research addresses experimentally the relationship between the excitation frequency and both hoop and axial wall stresses in a water storage tank. A low-density polyethylene tank with six different aspect ratios (water level to tank radius) was tested using a shake table. A laminar box with sand represents a soil site to simulate Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI). Sine excitations with eight frequencies that cover the first free vibration frequency of the tank-water system were applied. Additionally, Ricker wavelet excitations of two different dominant frequencies were considered. The maximum stresses are compared with those using a nonlinear elastic spring-mass model. The results reveal that the coincidence between the excitation frequency and the free-vibration frequency of the soil-tank-water system increases the sloshing intensity and the rigid-like body motion of the system, amplifying the stress development considerably. The relationship between the excitation frequency and wall stresses is nonlinear and depends simultaneously on both sloshing and uplift. In most cases, the maximum stresses using the nonlinear elastic spring-mass model agree with those from the experiments.