Vertical vibration of a rigid strip footing on a half-space of unsaturated porous soil

Abstract

This study presents an analytical solution to the compliance coefficient of rigid strip footings lying on an unsaturated porous soil half-space when subjected to vertical vibration. Using the Fourier transform techniques, the complex interaction between unsaturated soils and rigid strip foundations is transformed into a mixed boundary-value problem based on the developed framework of Biot’s model. The wavenumber domain auxiliary function and boundary conditions are used to convert the governing equations to a pair of dual integral equations. To yield the compliance function, the integral equations are transformed into a system of inhomogeneous linear equations by utilizing hypergeometric polynomials and Bessel functions. The proposed analytical solution is verified against existing solutions to interactions between foundations and saturated soil or single-phase soil by adjusting the parameters in the unsaturated soil model. Additionally, the impacts of soil skeleton saturation, intrinsic permeability, and Poisson’s ratio of unsaturated soil on the dynamic compliance coefficient of rigid strip footings are examined. It is shown that the Poisson’s ratio of the soil skeleton and the soil saturation at critical saturation have a significant effect on the dynamic compliance coefficient, but have a negligible effect on the intrinsic permeability.