Performance Based Assessment of Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction Effects on Seismic Response of Building Frames

Abstract

Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) has progressed rapidly in the second half of 20th century stimulated mainly by requirements of the nuclear power and offshore industries to improve the seismic safety. In this study, a fifteen storey moment resisting building frame is selected in conjunction with three different soil deposits with shear wave velocity less than 600m/s. The design sections are defined after applying dynamic nonlinear time history analysis based on inelastic design procedure using elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour of structural elements. These frames are modelled and analysed employing Finite Difference approach using FLAC 2D software under two different boundary conditions, namely fixed-base (no soil-structure interaction), and considering soil-structure interaction. Fully nonlinear dynamic analyses under the influence of different earthquake records are conducted and the results of inelastic behaviour of the structural model are compared. Variations of the shear modulus ratio with the shear strain are included in the nonlinear dynamic analysis. The results indicate that the inter-storey drifts of the structural model resting on soil types De and Ee (according to the Australian standard) substantially increase when soil-structure interaction is considered for the above mentioned soil types. Performance levels of the structures change from life safe to near collapse when dynamic soil-structure interaction is incorporated. Therefore, the conventional inelastic design procedure excluding SSI is no longer adequate to guarantee the structural safety for the building frames resting on soft soil deposits. Design engineers need to address the effects of dynamic SSI precisely in their design especially for construction projects on soft soils.