Strength reduction factor for multistory building-soil systems

Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigate the effects of SSI on strength reduction factor of multistory buildings. A new formula is proposed to estimate strength reduction factors for MDOF structure-soil systems. It is concluded that SSI reduces the strength reduction factor of MDOF systems. The amount of this reduction is relevant to the fundamental period of structure, soil flexibility, aspect ratio and ductility of structure, and could be significantly different from corresponding fixed-base value. Using this formula, measuring the amount of this error could be done with acceptable accuracy. For some practical cases, the error attains up to 50%.