Soil structure interaction

About: Soil structure interaction is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3653 publications have been published within this topic receiving 48890 citations.

Influence of dynamic soil–structure interaction on the nonlinear response and seismic reliability of multistorey systems

Abstract: A set of reinforced concrete structures with gravitational loads and mechanical properties (strength and stiffness) representative of systems designed for earthquake resistance in accordance with current criteria and methods is selected to study the influence of dynamic soil–structure interaction on seismic response, ductility demands and reliability levels. The buildings are considered located at soft soil sites in the Valley of Mexico and subjected to ground motion time histories simulated in accordance with characteristic parameters of the maximum probable earthquake likely to occur during the system's expected life. For the near-resonance condition the effects of soil–structure interaction on the ductility demands depend mainly on radiation damping. According to the geometry of the structures studied this damping is strongly correlated with the aspect ratio, obtained by dividing the building height by its width. In this way, for structures with aspect ratio greater than 1.4 the storey and global ductility demands increase with respect to those obtained with the same structures but on rigid base, while for structures with aspect ratio less than 1.4 the ductility demands decrease with respect to those for the structures on rigid base. For the cases when the fundamental period of the structure has values very different from the dominant ground period, soil–structure interaction leads in all cases to a reduction of the ductility demands, independently of the aspect ratio. The reliability index β is obtained as a function of the base shear ratio and of the seismic intensity acting on the nonlinear systems subjected to the simulated motions. The resulting reliability functions are very similar for systems on rigid or on flexible foundation, provided that in the latter case the base rotation and the lateral displacement are removed from the total response of the system. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Seismic Response of Gravity Quay Walls. II: Numerical Modeling

Abstract: It is important to understand the seismic response of quay walls in order to design these structures against earthquake loading. Centrifuge experiments were carried out at Cambridge University on gravity quay walls. In this paper, an effective-stress based, fully coupled finite element code called SWANDYNE is used to simulate the response of gravity quay walls under earthquake loading, and the results are compared with the data from centrifuge tests. It is found from the analysis that the absorbing boundaries used in the centrifuge experiments to simulate the free field condition can be effectively modeled by a new numerical technique. The initial velocity and displacement conditions experienced by the centrifuge model need to be replicated in the numerical analysis. Special slip elements were used at the interface between the quay wall and soil body to improve the numerical predictions. The results of numerical modeling agree reasonably well with experimental data for both dry and saturated tests.

On the interest of integrating vehicle dynamics for the ground propagation of vibrations: the case of urban railway traffic

Abstract: This paper presents a complete numerical model for studying the vertical dynamics of the vehicle/track interaction and its impact on the surrounding soil, with the emphasis on vehicle modelling. A decoupling between the track and the soil is proposed, due to the difficulty of considering all the subsystem components. The train/track model is based on a multibody model (for the vehicle) and a finite element model (for the track). The soil is modelled using an infinite/finite element approach. Simulations of both models are carried out in the time domain, which is better able to simulate the propagation of the vibration waves and to take into account the possible nonlinearity of a component. The methodology is applied in the case of an urban tram track and validated with the available experimental data. Models for the tram, the track and the soil are described. Results from the complete model of the vehicle and a simple model, based on an axle load, are compared with experimental results and the benefits of a complete model in the simulation of the ground vibration propagation induced by railway vehicles are demonstrated. Moreover, a parametric study of the vehicle wheel type is conducted, which shows the advantage of a resilient wheel, for various rail defects.