Soil-Structure Interaction Effects on Seismic Response of

Multi-Story Buildings on Raft Foundation

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Earthquakes cause damages to structures and result in great human

casualties and economic loss. A fraction of the kinetic energy released from
earthquakes is transferred into buildings through soils. The investigation on
the mechanism of the energy transferring from soils to buildings during
earthquakes is critical for the design of earthquake resistant structures and
for upgrading existing structures. Thus the need and possibilities for research
into SSI problems are greater than ever. Moreover, recent studies show that
the effects of SSI may be detrimental to the seismic response of structure and
neglecting SSI in analysis may lead to un-conservative design. Despite this,
the conventional design procedure usually involves assumption of fixity at the
base of foundation neglecting the flexibility of the foundation, the
compressibility of soil mass and consequently the effect of foundation
settlement on further redistribution of bending moments and shear force.
Thus the earthquake wave-soil-structure interaction analysis of multi-story
buildings is the main focus of this research.
The effects of SSI are analyzed for typical high-rise building resting on raft
foundation, the influences of parameters of slab-column structure-raft
foundation-soil model of a practical engineering is carried. The three
dimensional FEM models are constructed to analyze the effects of raft
thickness; different soil conditions; number of stories; number of bays; the
ratio of flexural stiffness of columns to that of beams and ground excitation
frequency on the vibration characteristics and seismic responses of high-rise
building structures with enlarged base. The soil-flexibilities for various types
of soil and foundation based on their properties, e.g., shear modulus, the
Poisson ratio of the soil, and shape and size of the rafts are computed
following the well-accepted literature.
Numerical results obtained using fixed-base support conditions are compared
to those corresponding to foundation-soil interaction conditions. The peak
response of absolute acceleration, story drift, moments at beam ends, as well
as inner force of columns and shear walls are analyzed under two orthogonal
horizontal directions seismic excitations. The results demonstrate that some
position are dangerous in the system of non-interaction and the influences of
parameters, such as damping ratio of soil, soil property, buried depth and soil
depth, seismic wave on the dynamic interaction effect of SSI system are
notable. A substantial increase in the bending moment and shear force in the
foundation itself due to such interaction effect, such increase is observed to
be strongly dependent on the framing action of the structure.
In summary, the main objectives of the research are:

Specifying the design input motion to the structure.

Modeling the dynamic soil properties specifically soil damping and stiffness
on the basis of experimental data and past experience.
Idealizing the analytical model of the SSI system either by direct method or
sub-structure method.
Treating the non-linear soil model by a suitable constitutive model.

Modeling the boundary between the bounded structure and the unbounded
soil.
Coping with the possible separation of the soil and the structure during
strong shaking.
Computing the response of the entire model by suitable numerical
techniques.

Soil-Structure Interaction Effects on Seismic Response of
Multi-Story Buildings on Raft Foundation
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/ .
/...
/ .

:
:

Introduction
Earthquakes cause damages to structures and result in great human
casualties and economic loss. A fraction of the kinetic energy released from
earthquakes is transferred into buildings through soils. The investigation on
the mechanism of the energy transferring from soils to buildings during
earthquakes is critical for the design of earthquake resistant structures and
for upgrading existing structures. Thus the need and possibilities for research
into SSI problems are greater than ever. Moreover, recent studies show that
the effects of SSI may be detrimental to the seismic response of structure and
neglecting SSI in analysis may lead to un-conservative design. Despite this,
the conventional design procedure usually involves assumption of fixity at the
base of foundation neglecting the flexibility of the foundation, the
compressibility of soil mass and consequently the effect of foundation
settlement on further redistribution of bending moments and shear force.
Thus the earthquake wave-soil-structure interaction analysis of multi-story
buildings is the main focus of this research.
The effects of SSI are analyzed for typical high-rise building resting on raft
foundation, the influences of parameters of slab-column structure-raft
foundation-soil model of a practical engineering is carried. The three
dimensional FEM models are constructed to analyze the effects of raft
thickness; different soil conditions; number of stories; number of bays; the
ratio of flexural stiffness of columns to that of beams and ground excitation

frequency on the vibration characteristics and seismic responses of high-rise

building structures with enlarged base. The soil-flexibilities for various types
of soil and foundation based on their properties, e.g., shear modulus, the
Poisson ratio of the soil, and shape and size of the rafts are computed
following the well-accepted literature.
Numerical results obtained using fixed-base support conditions are compared
to those corresponding to foundation-soil interaction conditions. The peak
response of absolute acceleration, story drift, moments at beam ends, as well
as inner force of columns and shear walls are analyzed under two orthogonal
horizontal directions seismic excitations. The results demonstrate that some
position are dangerous in the system of non-interaction and the influences of
parameters, such as damping ratio of soil, soil property, buried depth and soil
depth, seismic wave on the dynamic interaction effect of SSI system are
notable. A substantial increase in the bending moment and shear force in the
foundation itself due to such interaction effect, such increase is observed to
be strongly dependent on the framing action of the structure.
State of the problem
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Objectives
In summary, the main objectives of the research are:
Specifying the design input motion to the structure.

Modeling the dynamic soil properties specifically soil damping and stiffness
on the basis of experimental data and past experience.
Idealizing the analytical model of the SSI system either by direct method or
sub-structure method.
Treating the non-linear soil model by a suitable constitutive model.
Modeling the boundary between the bounded structure and the unbounded
soil.
Coping with the possible separation of the soil and the structure during
strong shaking.
Computing the response of the entire model by suitable numerical
techniques.

Methodology
Expected outcomes