Simplified Numerical Analysis of Soil–Structure Systems Subjected to Monotonically Increasing Lateral Load

Adriana Brandis,Ivan Kraus,Simon Petrovčič

doi:10.3390/app11094219

Adriana Brandis, Ivan Kraus + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11094219

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: May 6, 2021
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Osijek, University of Ljubljana

Abstract

Numerical modelling of the soil in seismic design of structures is always a daunting task. The goal of this article is to develop a simplistic numerical modelling technique for shallow founded buildings on compliant soils. An existing large-scale experimental research (TRISEE) was used for calibration. The physical model comprised of a rigid square foundation placed on a sand bed connected to a rigid column and was subjected to a dynamic sine loading. The results from the TRISEE experiment are well known and commonly used by researchers in this field, yet none of the numerical studies were conducted considering the loose sand case. Nonlinear link elements and linear springs were used for representing the soil. It was determined that the soil behavior is highly influenced by the stiffness, selected hysteresis model, and the p-y curve. Considering the software limitations, numerical models represent the experimental behavior in a good manner. Based on the results obtained from the experiment, a case study on a steel frame building with SSI effects included was conducted. Considering the results from this research, the authors recommend implementation of SSI effects into the building’s design phase since they exhibit unfavorable impacts on the seismic behavior and can lead to underdesigned structural elements. However, it has to be emphasized that certain limitations exist due to simplified modelling approaches that were used for this research.

Highlights

Experimental research usually presents a valuable insight into the effects of soil–structure interaction (SSI), yet due to high costs it is not always conducted
Most of the small-scale experiments are conducted in geotechnical centrifuges [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] which result in severe use of interpretation scaling factors of the experimental results
The uniform load distribution is less accurate than the modal distribution since it does not consider the relationships between the modal displacements of each story

Summary

Introduction

Structure interaction (SSI), yet due to high costs it is not always conducted. Some valuable SSI experimental results and sand modelling techniques on including SSI effects in soil–structure systems are available in literature [1,2,3]. These types of experiments can be conducted statically or dynamically and in large or small scale, but considering the significant costs of this type of experiments, small scale experiments are more common. For any SSI experiment, large-scale experiments are encouraged [13,14] since they describe the behavior of structures more accurately than their small-scale counterparts. The research on buildings with shallow foundations founded on compliant soils is of great importance since a large number of buildings are built in this manner [15,16]

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