ON THE DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF TWO-PHASE SOILS

The studies on the dynamic analysis of saturated soils led to various numerical approaches that involve different assumptions, different governing equations and also different sets of free variables. The relatively complex mathematical structure of the problem does not permit a straightforward evaluation of the consequences of these assumptions and, hence, makes the choice of the most appropriate numerical approach somewhat controversial. Here the complete formulation of dynamic two-phase problems is first summarized, under assumptions which seem acceptable in the geotechnical engineering context. Then, two finite element approaches are derived on this basis, the latter of which permits reducing the number of free nodal variables with respect to the first one. Finally, the results obtained in the solution of two benchmark problems are presented and commented upon