• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.203-230
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• 2012

This paper presents results for impedance (and compliance) functions and input motions of foundations in a layered half-space computed on the basis of a procedure that combines a consistent transmitting boundary with continued-fraction absorbing boundary conditions which are accurate and effective in modeling wave propagation in various unbounded domains. The effects of obliquely incident seismic waves in a layered half-space are taken into account in the formulation of the transmitting boundary. Using the numerical model, impedance (and compliance) functions and input motions of rigid circular foundations on the surface of or embedded in a homogeneous half-space are computed and compared with available published results for verification of the procedure. Extrapolation methods are proposed to improve the performance in the very-low-frequency range and for the static condition. It is concluded from the applications that accurate analysis of foundation dynamics and soil-structure interaction in a layered half-space can be carried out using the enhanced consistent transmitting boundary and the proposed extrapolations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2023

Considering the non-linear behavior of structure and soil when evaluating a nuclear power plant's seismic safety under a beyond-design basis earthquake is essential. In order to obtain the nonlinear response of a nuclear power plant structure, a time-domain SSI analysis method that considers the nonlinearity of soil and structure and the nonlinear Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) effect is necessary. The Boundary Reaction Method (BRM) is a time-domain SSI analysis method. The BRM can be applied effectively with a Perfectly Matched Layer (PML), which is an effective energy absorbing boundary condition. The BRM has a characteristic that the magnitude of the response in far-field soil increases as the boundary interface of the effective seismic load moves outward. In addition, the PML has poor absorption performance of low-frequency waves. For this reason, the accuracy of the low-frequency response may be degraded when analyzing the combination of the BRM and the PML. In this study, the accuracy of the analysis response was improved by adjusting the PML input parameters to improve this problem. The accuracy of the response was evaluated by using the analysis response using KIESSI-3D, a frequency domain SSI analysis program, as a reference solution. As a result of the analysis applying the optimal PML parameter, the average error rate of the acceleration response spectrum for 9 degrees of freedom of the structure was 3.40%, which was highly similar to the reference result. In addition, time-domain nonlinear SSI analysis was performed with the soil's nonlinearity to show this study's applicability. As a result of nonlinear SSI analysis, plastic deformation was concentrated in the soil around the foundation. The analysis results found that the analysis method combining BRM and PML can be effectively applied to the seismic response analysis of nuclear power plant structures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2005

In the field of earthquake engineering, recent improvements in many areas, such as seismological source modeling, analysis of travel path effects, and characterization of local site effects on strong shaking, have led to significant advances in both code-based and more advanced procedures for evaluating earthquake ground motions. A missing link, however, is empirically verified design procedures fur assessing the effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI). Available Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) analysis techniques range from simple substructure-type procedures to relatively sophisticated finite element procedures. The most common substructure approach for foundation-soil interaction is to use a frequency-dependent and complex-valued impedance function. This study uniquely evaluates impedance functions for two well-instrumented sites w significant inertial SSI effects using a system Identification technique. The system identification analysis results are then compared to predictions from a simple theoretical model to gain insight into the inertial interaction effect in the subject sites.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2014

In this paper, a coupling scheme for applying finite element analysis(FEA) programs, such as, LS-DYNA and MIDAS/Civil, to a nonlinear soil structure interaction analysis by the boundary reaction method(BRM) is presented. With the FEA programs, the structure and soil media are discretized by linear or nonlinear finite elements. To absorb the outgoing elastic waves to unbounded soil region as much as possible, the PML elements and viscous-spring elements are used at the outer FE boundary, in the LS-DYNA model and in MIDAS/Civil model, respectively. It is also assumed that all the nonlinear elements in the problem are limited to structural region. In this study, the boundary reaction forces for the use in the BRM are calculated using the KIESSI-3D program by solving soil-foundation interaction problem subjected to incident seismic waves. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a linear SSI seismic analysis problem by comparing the BRM solution with the conventional SSI solution. Numerical comparison indicates that the BRM can effectively be applied to a nonlinear soil-structure analysis if motions at the foundation obtained by the BRM for a linear SSI problem excluding the nonlinear structure is conservative.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.19-27
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• 2001

In this seismic analyses of structures, it is well recognized that the effects of soil-structure interaction can not be ignored and seismic responses of a structure taking into account the stiffnesses of a foundation-soil system show the significant difference from those with a rigid base. However, current seismic analyses of apartment building structures were carried out with the rigid base ignoring the characteristics of the foundation and the properties of the underlying soil. In this study, seismic analyses of wall-slob type apartment buildings which have a particular structural type were carried out taking into account the soft soil layer comparing seismic response spectra of a flexible base with those of a rigid base and UBC-97. Low-rise or middle height wall-slab type apartment buildings built on the deep soft soil layer showed a rigid body motion with the reduced seismic responses due to the base isolation effect, indicating that it is considerably safe but uneconomical to utilize the design spectra of UB-97 for the seismic design of wall-slab type apartment buildings due to conservative design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1069-1084
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• 2014

The long-term performance of plates resting on viscoelastic foundations is a major concern in the analysis of soil-structure interaction. As a powerful mathematical tool, fractional calculus may address these plate-on-foundation problems. In this paper, a fractionalized Zener model is proposed to study the time-dependent behavior of a uniformly loaded rectangular thin foundation plate. By use of the viscoelastic-elastic correspondence principle and the Laplace transforms, the analytical solutions were obtained in terms of the Mittag-Leffler function. Through the analysis of a numerical example, the calculated plate deflection, bending moment and foundation reaction were compared to those from ideal elastic and standard viscoelastic models. It is found that the upper and lower bound solutions of the plate response estimated by the proposed model can be determined using the elastic model. Based on a parametric study, the impacts of model parameters on the long-term performance of a foundation plate were systematically investigated. The results show that the two spring stiffnesses govern the upper and lower bound solutions of the plate response. By varying the values of the fractional differential order and the coefficient of viscosity, the time-dependent behavior of a foundation plate can be accurately captured. The fractional differential order seems to be dependent on the mechanical properties of the ground soil. A sandy foundation will have a small fractional differential order while in order to simulate the creeping of clay foundation, a larger fractional differential order value is needed. The fractionalized Zener model is capable of accounting for the primary and secondary consolidation processes of the foundation soil and can be used to predict the plate performance over many decades of time.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.929-946
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• 2017

Composite foundation treated with compaction piles can eliminate collapsibility and improve the bearing capacity of foundation in loess area. However, the large number of piles in the composite foundation leads to difficulties in the analysis of such type of engineering works. This paper proposes two simplified methods to quantify the stability of composite foundation treated with a large number of compaction piles. The first method is based on the principle of making the area replacement ratios of the simplified model as the same time as the practical engineering situation. Then, discrete piles arranged in a triangular shape can be simplified in the model where the annular piles and compacted soil are arranged alternately. The second method implements equivalent continuous treatment in the pile-soil area and makes the whole treated region equivalent to a type of composite material. Both methods have been verified using treated foundation of an oil storage tank. The results have shown that the differences in the settlement values obtained from the water filled test in the field and those calculated by the two simplified methods are negligible. Using stability analysis, the difference ratios of the static and dynamic safety factors of the composite foundation treated with compaction piles calculated by these two simplified methods are found to be 3.56% and 5.32%, respectively. At the same time, both static and dynamic safety factors are larger than the general safety factor, which should be greater than or equal to 2.0 according to the provisions in civil engineering. This indicates that after being treated with compaction piles, the bearing capacity of the composite foundation is effectively improved and the foundation has enough safety reserve.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.73-81
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• 2012

Safety issue for offshore wind-turbine foundation becomes a crucial factor as offshore wind turbines have been scaled up. Correspondingly, there is a demand to understand the effect of soil-structure interaction on to system behavior in geotechnical engineering point of view. The p-y curve method researched in past few decades is one of the most appropriate methodology to analyze the problem. In this study, recently proposed p-y curve models for various rocks are calibrated to analyze the engineering characteristics of seabed of Jeju Island where it is known to be most suitable area for offshore wind energy farm. Step by step calibration process for p-y models is presented. Analysis results show that subgrade reaction generally increases as closer to seabed. It is also shown that the behavioral characteristics of foundation reflect well rock properties in terms of resultant moment, shear force, etc.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.411-424
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• 2018

This study explores the inelastic behavior of systems with flexible base. The use of a single degree of freedom system (ESDOF) with equivalent ductility to represent the response of flexible base systems is discussed. Two different equations to compute equivalent ductility are proposed, one which includes the contribution of rigid body components, and other based on the overstrength of the structure. In order to asses the accuracy of ESDOF approach with the proposed equations, the behavior of a 10-story regular building with reinforced concrete (RC) moment resisting frames is studied. Local and global ductility capacity and demands are used to study the modifications introduced by base flexibility. Three soil types are considered with shear wave velocities of 70, 100 and 250 m/s. Soil-foundation stiffness is included with a set of springs on the base (impedance functions). Capacity curves of the building are computed with pushover analysis. In addition, non linear time history analysis are used to asses the ductility demands. Results show that ductility capacity of the soil-structure system including rigid body components is reduced. Base flexibility does not modify neither yield and maximum base shear. Equivalent ductility estimated with the proposed equations is fits better the results of the numerical model than the one considering elastoplastic behavior. Modification of beams ductility demand due to base flexibility are not constant within the structure. Some elements experience reduced ductility demands while other elements experience increments when flexible base is considered. Soil structure interaction produces changes in the relation between yield strength reduction factor and structure ductility demand. These changes are dependent on the spectral shape and the period of the system with fixed and flexible base.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.433-442
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• 2004

The aim of this paper is to study the interaction between adjacent buildings with different foundation levels under earthquake loading conditions. Buildings and soil are represented by two different models. In the first case, the building itself is modeled with standard frame element, whereas the soil behavior is stimulated by a special grid model. In the second case, the building and soil are represented by plane stress or plane strain elements. The modulus of elasticity of the 9round as well as the varying relations of inertia have a strong influence on the section forces within the buildings. The Interaction between the two buildings is demonstrated and discussed via numerical examples using the proposed method.