Numerical simulation of the near-fault spontaneous rupture and its influence on dynamic soil-structure interaction

Abstract

Based on the sub-model technology and the secondary development of the user subroutine in the finite element software ABAQUS, a numerical simulation method to model the dynamic process of near-fault spontaneous rupture is established and verified. The physical nature of near-fault spontaneous rupture is revealed by the proposed numerical simulation method. In addition, the influence of near-fault pulse-type ground motion on the dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI) is investigated, which is compared with that of the far-fault ground motion. The results indicate that the acceleration of near-fault ground motion has rich low-frequency components, and the peak vertical acceleration approximately is 1.5 times greater than peak horizontal acceleration, which usually is 2/3 as seismic codes deal with the far-fault ground motion. Finally, it is observed that the distributions of responses of the superstructure and the soil foundation under near-fault ground motion and far-fault ground motion are similar with each other. The responses under near-fault ground motion can be 254.5% greater than that under far-fault ground motion, which means that the near-fault ground motion is more destructive to the structure.