A simplified method for treating the dynamic response of embedded structures to SH-waves

A simplified method is proposed to treat the dynamic response of rigid embedded structures subjected to plane SH-waves. The soil-structure interface is discretized into a finite number of strips, resulting in an analysis which involves only plane surfaces and plane waves. The interaction force on any strip is determined easily and the contributions from all the strips are superposed to obtain the total force on the structure. The equation of motion then yields the steady state response of the structure. The Green function for the structure is obtained by Fourier synthesis. The transient response of the structure to any other excitation is then obtained by using the Green function and the Duhamel integral. Numerical examples are presented both to validate and illustrate the method.