1 Garner Valley Field Testing: Soil-Structure Interaction

A soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis may be a better approach for designing structures to withstand earthquakes than the practical rigid base approach. The rigid base analysis neglects soil-structure interaction effects that occur during an earthquake loading and that affect the structure’s behavior. The SSI model that predicts SSI effects may be validated through field experiments that use the acceleration data of a structure tested by forced vibrations. The Garner Valley Field Testing project is part of a larger project aiming to understand soil-structure interaction and its effects on seismic structural response. To do so a portable test structure has been dynamically loaded using a shaker to simulate an earthquake loading. The portable test structure has been tested on a strong floor at UCLA as well as at the NEES@UCSB Wildlife field site. The comparison of predicted structural properties to the experimental results shows that the SSI flexible base model gives better approximations compared to the rigid base analysis. SSI research will improve structural engineering design standards so it is important to continue research so that SSI analysis may become more applicable