Seismic analysis of turbo machinery foundation: Shaking table test and computational modeling

Abstract

Foundation plays a significant role in safe and efficient turbo machinery operation. Turbo machineries generate harmonic load on the foundation due to their high speed rotating motion which causes vibration in the machinery, foundation and soil beneath the foundation. The problems caused by vibration get multiplied if the soil is poor. An improperly designed machine foundation increases the vibration and reduces machinery health leading to frequent maintenance. Hence it is very important to study the soil structure interaction and effect of machine vibration on the foundation during turbo machinery operation in the design stage itself. The present work studies the effect of harmonic load due to machine operation along with earthquake loading on the frame foundation for poor soil conditions. Various alternative foundations like rafts, barrette, batter pile and combinations of barrettes with batter pile are analyzed to study the improvements in the vibration patterns. Detailed computational analysis was carried out in SAP 2000 software; the numerical model was analyzed and compared with the shaking table experiment results. The numerical results are found to be closely matching with the experimental data which confirms the accuracy of the numerical model predictions. Both shake table and SAP 2000 results reveal that combination of barrette and batter piles with raft are best suitable for poor soil conditions because it reduces the displacement at top deck, bending moment and horizontal displacement of pile and thereby making the foundation more stable under seismic loading.