Method to evaluate the dynamic structure-soil-structure interaction of 3-D buildings arrangement due to seismic excitation

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of Structure-Soil-Structure Interaction (SSSI) between multiple buildings in a three-dimensional arrangement under seismic excitation. A numerically simplified reduced-order model is proposed to significantly shorten computational run-times for the case of very large clusters of buildings. This formulation has been developed to include the presence of any number of buildings with different heights, widths and interbuilding distances. The auto-rotational spring stiffnesses and inter-rotational spring stiffnesses, of foundations, used in this model are determined by an application of an empirical surficial displacement field (loosely based on a form derived from a Boussinesq elastic half-space approximation that is calibrated against FEA) and inverse system identification using either least-squares or an application of Kronecker products. Different spatial building arrangements are presented, in order to compare with previous research and highlight the versatility of the method. The results showed that the 3D multi-building SSSI can be significantly more complex and difficult to predict than the previous 2D cases in the literature.