• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2021

Digging well foundation has been widely used in railway bridges due to its good economy and reliability. In other instances, bridges with digging well foundation still have damage risks during earthquakes. However, there is still a lack of knowledge of lateral behavior of digging well foundation considering the soil-foundation interaction. In this study, scaled models of bridge pier-digging well foundation system are constructed for quasi-static test to investigate their lateral behaviors. The failure mechanism and responses of the soil-foundation-pier interaction system are analyzed. The testing results indicate that the digging foundations tend to rotate as a rigid body under cyclic lateral load. Moreover, the depth-width ratio of digging well foundation has a significant influence on the failure mode of the interaction system, especially on the distribution of foundation displacement and the failure of pier. The energy dissipation capacity of the interaction system is discussed by using index of the equivalent viscous damping ratio. The damping varies with the depth-width ratio changing. The equivalent stiffness of soil-digging well foundation-pier interaction system decreases with the increase of loading displacement in a nonlinear manner. The absolute values of the interaction system stiffness are significantly influenced by the depth-width ratio of the foundation.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.284-291
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• 2006

This paper presents a seismic response analysis of bridge structures considering foundation-soil interaction and multi-support input motion. In the earthquake analysis of structures it is usually assumed that the input ground motion is the same at all supports. However, this assumption is not justified for long structures like bridges, because observations have shown the earthquake ground motion can vary considerably within relatively small distances. When the soil under the foundation is relatively soft and deep, analysis for foundation-soil interaction always must be peformed. To consider foundation-soil interaction, soil response analysis is preceded, and after determining the material characteristics of foundation element obtained by foundation-soil interaction analysis at the frequency domain, the seismic response analysis of bridge superstructure with the equivalent spring and damper is performed. Finally, influences of multi-support input motion, which are affected by different soil characteristics, are also considered in this paper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.887-903
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• 2016

This study analyses the seismic response of a three-dimensional (3-D) rigid massless square foundation resting or embedded in a viscoelastic soil limited by rigid bedrock. The foundation is subjected to harmonic oblique seismic waves P, SV, SH and R. The key step is the characterization of the soil-foundation interaction by computing the impedance matrix and the input motion matrix. A 3-D frequency boundary element method (BEM) in conjunction with the thin layer method (TLM) is adapted for the seismic analysis of the foundation. The dynamic response of the rigid foundation is solved from the wave equations by taking into account the soil-foundation interaction. The solution is formulated using the frequency BEM with the Green's function obtained from the TLM. This approach has been applied to analyze the effect of soilstructure interaction on the seismic response of the foundation as a function of the kind of incident waves, the angles of incident waves, the wave's frequencies and the embedding of foundation. The parametric results show that the non-vertical incident waves, the embedment of foundation, and the wave's frequencies have important impact on the dynamic response of rigid foundations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1045-1075
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• 2016

Shallow footings are one of the most common types of foundations used to support mid-rise buildings in high risk seismic zones. Recent findings have revealed that the dynamic interaction between the soil, foundation, and the superstructure can influence the seismic response of the building during earthquakes. Accordingly, the properties of a foundation can alter the dynamic characteristics (natural frequency and damping) of the soil-foundation-structure system. In this paper the influence that shallow foundations have on the seismic response of a mid-rise moment resisting building is investigated. For this purpose, a fifteen storey moment resisting frame sitting on shallow footings with different sizes was simulated numerically using ABAQUS software. By adopting a direct calculation method, the numerical model can perform a fully nonlinear time history dynamic analysis to realistically simulate the dynamic behaviour of soil, foundation, and structure under seismic excitations. This three-dimensional numerical model accounts for the nonlinear behaviour of the soil medium and structural elements. Infinite boundary conditions were assigned to the numerical model to simulate free field boundaries, and appropriate contact elements capable of modelling sliding and separation between the foundation and soil elements are also considered. The influence of foundation size on the natural frequency of the system and structural response spectrum was also studied. The numerical results for cases of soil-foundation-structure systems with different sized foundations and fixed base conditions (excluding soil-foundation-structure interaction) in terms of lateral deformations, inter-storey drifts, rocking, and shear force distribution of the structure were then compared. Due to natural period lengthening, there was a significant reduction in the base shears when the size of the foundation was reduced. It was concluded that the size of a shallow foundation influences the dynamic characteristics and the seismic response of the building due to interaction between the soil, foundation, and structure, and therefore design engineer should carefully consider these parameters in order to ensure a safe and cost effective seismic design.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2014

In this study, a series of dynamic centrifuge tests were performed for a soil-foundation-structural interaction system in dry sand with various embedded depths and superstructure conditions. Sinusoidal wave, sweep wave and real earthquake were used as input motion with various input acceleration and frequencies. Based on the results, a natural period and an earthquake load for soil-structure interaction system were evaluated by comparing the free-field and foundation accelerations. The natural period of free field is longer than that of the soil-foundation-structure system. In addition, it is confirmed that the earthquake load for soil-foundation-structure system is smaller than that of free-field in short period region. In contrast, the earthquake load for soil-foundation-structure interaction system is larger than that of free-field in long period region. Therefore, the current seismic design method, applying seismic loading of free-field to foundation, could overly underestimate seismic load and cause unsafe design for long period structures, such as high-rise buildings.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.547-560
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• 2020

This paper studies the dynamic foundation-soil-foundation interaction for two square rigid foundations embedded in a viscoelastic soil layer. The vibrations come from only one rigid foundation placed in the soil layer and subjected to harmonic loads of translation, rocking, and torsion. The required dynamic response of rigid surface foundations constitutes the solution of the wave equations obtained by taking account of the conditions of interaction. The solution is formulated using the frequency domain Boundary Element Method (BEM) in conjunction with the Kausel-Peek Green's function for a layered stratum, with the aid of the Thin Layer Method (TLM), to study the dynamic interaction between adjacent foundations. This approach allows the establishment of a mathematical model that enables us to determine the dynamic displacements amplitude of adjacent foundations according to their different separations, the depth of the substratum, foundations masss, foundations embedded, and the frequencies of excitation. This paper attempts to introduce an approach based on a polynomial mathematical tool conducted from several results of numerical methods (BEM-TLM) so that practicing civil engineers can evaluation the dynamic foundations displacements more easy.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.283-297
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• 2013

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the soil-structure interaction affects sloshing response of the elevated tanks. For this purpose, the elevated tanks with two different types of supporting systems which are built on six different soil profiles are analyzed for both embedded and surface foundation cases. Thus, considering these six different profiles described in well-known earthquake codes as supporting medium, a series of transient analysis have been performed to assess the effect of both fluid sloshing and soil-structure interaction (SSI). Fluid-Elevated Tank-Soil/Foundation systems are modeled with the finite element (FE) technique. In these models fluid-structure interaction is taken into account by implementing Lagrangian fluid FE approximation into the general purpose structural analysis computer code ANSYS. A 3-D FE model with viscous boundary is used in the analyses of elevated tanks-soil/foundation interaction. Formed models are analyzed for embedment and no embedment cases. Finally results from analyses showed that the soil-structure interaction and the structural properties of supporting system for the elevated tanks affected the sloshing response of the fluid inside the vessel.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-79
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• 2010

The effect of soil-structure interaction on a single-storey, two-bay space frame resting on a pile group embedded in the cohesive soil (clay) with flexible cap is examined in this paper. For this purpose, a more rational approach is resorted to using the finite element analysis with realistic assumptions. Initially, a 3-D FEA is carried out independently for the frame on the premise of fixed column bases in which members of the superstructure are discretized using the 20-node isoparametric continuum elements. Later, a model is worked out separately for the pile foundation, by using the beam elements, plate elements and spring elements to model the pile, pile cap and soil, respectively. The stiffness obtained for the foundation is used in the interaction analysis of the frame to quantify the effect of soil-structure interaction on the response of the superstructure. In the parametric study using the substructure approach (uncoupled analysis), the effects of pile spacing, pile configuration, and pile diameter of the pile group on the response of superstructure are evaluated. The responses of the superstructure considered include the displacement at top of the frame and moments in the columns. The effect of soil-structure interaction is found to be quite significant for the type of foundation considered in the study. Fair agreement is observed between the results obtained herein using the simplified models for the pile foundation and those existing in the literature based on a complete three dimensional analysis of the building frame - pile foundation - soil system.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.65-83
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• 2011

In this study, two extreme cases of compatibility of the horizontal displacements between the foundation and soil are considered, for which the pressure and settlements of the isolated footings and member end actions in structural elements are obtained using the three dimensional models and numerical experiments. The first case considered is complete slip between foundation and soil, termed as the un-coupled analysis. In the second case of analysis, termed as the coupled analysis, complete welding is assumed of joints between the foundation and soil elements. The model and the corresponding computer program developed simulate these two extreme states of compatibility giving insight into the variation of horizontal displacements and horizontal stresses and their intricacies, for evaluation of the influence of using the interface elements in soil-structure interaction analysis of three dimensional multiscale structures supported by isolated footings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2017

This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full This paper studies soil properties uncertainty and its implementation in the seismic response evaluation of structures. For this, response sensitivity of two 4- and 12-story RC shear walls to the soil properties uncertainty by considering soil structure interaction (SSI) effects is investigated. Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model is used for shallow foundation modeling and the uncertainty of soil properties is expanded to the foundation stiffness and strength parameters variability. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique is employed for probabilistic evaluations. By investigating the probabilistic evaluation results it's observed that as the soil and foundation become stiffer, the soil uncertainty is found to be less important in influencing the response variability. On the other hand, the soil uncertainty becomes more important as the foundation-structure system is expected to experience nonlinear behavior to more sever degree. Since full probabilistic analysis methods like MC commonly are very time consuming, the feasibility of simple approximate methods' application including First Order Second Moment (FOSM) method and ASCE41 proposed approach for the soil uncertainty considerations is investigated. By comparing the results of the approximate methods with the results obtained from MC, it's observed that the results of both FOSM and ASCE41 methods are in good agreement with the results of MC simulation technique and they show acceptable accuracy in predicting the response variability.