Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction

The dynamic response of a structure placed on a deformable soil medium subjected to seismic excitation is studied. The basic phenomena of soil-structure interaction was investigated by several analytical models supplemented by experimental observations; a brief review of literature in this discipline is also included. Among the physical phenomena investigated: the effects caused by local topography, the interaction with other structures, and the dissipation of dynamic energy through the soil medium were described by exact series solutions. Foundations of arbitrary shape, however, were modeled by using an approximate integral representation. This latter method utilizes the principle of superposition and provides flexibility in analyzing numerically the three-dimensional disc foundations placed on the soil surface. The results indicate that the detailed description for the shape of a rigid foundation placed on a deformable soil medium is not essential in the overall response of the superstructure, but the stress distribution under the disc foundation is quite sensitive to these changes in detail. In this thesis, several methods for the calculation of foundation compliances for several types of foundation models were discussed, some of which have direct practical practical applications. The importance of the base input motion induced by incident seismic waves is also stressed, because the seismic input, along with the foundation compliances, are necessary for a complete analysis of this problem.