• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.21-28
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• 2009

The precise analysis of soil-pile-structure interaction requires a proper description of soil layer, pile, and structure. In commonly used finite element simulations, mesh boundaries should match the material discontinuity line. However, in practice, the geometry of soil profiles and piles may be so complex that mesh alignment becomes a wasteful and difficult task. To overcome these difficulties, a different integration method is adopted in this paper, which enables easy integration over a regular element with material discontinuity regardless of the location of the discontinuity line. By applying this integration method, the mesh can be generated rapidly and in a highly structured manner, leading to a very regular stiffness matrix. The influence of the shape of the soil profile and piles on the response is examined, and the validity of the proposed soil-pile structure interaction analysis method is demonstrated through several examples. It is seen that the proposed analysis method can be easily used on soil-pile-structure interaction problems with complex interfaces between materials to produce reliable results regardless of the material discontinuity line.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.437-447
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• 2023

Inclined piles are commonly used in civil engineering constructions where significant lateral resistance is required. Many researchers proved their positive performance on the seismic behavior of the supported structure and the piles themselves. However, most of these numerical studies were done within the framework of linear elastic or elastoplastic soil behavior, neglecting therefore the soil non-linearity at low and moderate soil strains which is questionable and could be misleading in dynamic analysis. The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of the pile inclination on the seismic performance of the soil-pile-structure system when both the linear elastic and the nonlinear soil models are employed. Based on the comparative responses, the adequacy of the soil's linear elastic behavior will be therefore evaluated. The analysis is conducted by generating a three-dimensional finite difference model, where a full interaction between the soil, structure, and inclined piles is considered. The numerical survey proved that the pile inclination can have a significant impact on the internal forces generated by seismic activity, specifically on the bending moment and shear forces. The main disadvantages of using inclined piles in this system are the bending forces at the head and pile-to-head connection. It is crucial to account for soil nonlinearity to accurately assess the seismic response of the soil-pile-structure system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.2
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• pp.159-170
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• 2018

This paper aims to develop response modification factors for stiffness degrading structures by incorporating soil-structure interaction effects. A comprehensive parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of key SSI parameters, natural period of vibration, ductility demand and hysteretic behavior on the response modification factor of soil-structure systems. The nonlinear dynamic response of 6300 soil-structure systems are studied under two ensembles of accelograms including 20 recorded and 7 synthetic ground motions. It is concluded that neglecting the stiffness degradation of structures can results in up to 22% underestimation of inelastic strength demands in soil-structure systems, leading to an unexpected high level of ductility demand in the structures located on soft soil. Nonlinear regression analyses are then performed to derive a simplified expression for estimating ductility-dependent response modification factors for stiffness degrading soil-structure systems. The adequacy of the proposed expression is investigated through sensitivity analyses on nonlinear soil-structure systems under seven synthetic spectrum compatible earthquake ground motions. A good agreement is observed between the results of the predicted and the target ductility demands, demonstrating the adequacy of the expression proposed in this study to estimate the inelastic demands of SSI systems with stiffness degrading structures. It is observed that the maximum differences between the target and average target ductility demands was 15%, which is considered acceptable for practical design purposes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Contrast to the conventional jointed bridge design, integral abutment bridges (IABs) offer some marked advantages like reduced maintenance and enhanced service life of the structure due to elimination of joints in the deck and monolithic construction practices. However, the force transfer mechanism during seismic and thermal movements is a topic of interest owing to rigid connection between superstructure and substructure (piers and abutments). This study attempts to model an existing IAB by including the abutment backfill interaction and soil-foundation interaction effects using Winkler foundation assumption to determine its seismic response. Keeping in view the significance of abutment behavior in an IAB, the probability of damage to the abutment is evaluated using fragility function. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) approach is used in this regard, wherein, nonlinear time history analyses are conducted on the numerical model using a selected suite of ground motions with increasing intensities until damage to abutment. It is concluded from the fragility analysis results that for a MCE level earthquake in the location of integral bridge, the probability of complete damage to the abutment is minimal.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.120-129
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• 2000

As structure-soil interaction analysis for the seismic analysis of structures requires a nonlinear analysis of a structure-soil system considering the inelastic characteristics of soil layers nonlinear analyses of the foundation-soil system with the horizontal excitation were performed considering the nonlinear soil conditions for the nonlinear seismic analysis of structures. Stiff soil profile of SD and soft soil profile of SE specified in UBC were considered for the soil layers of a foundation and Ramberg-Osgood model was assumed for the nonlinear characteristics of soil layers. Studies on the changes of dynamci stiffnesses and damping rations of surface and embedded foundations depending on foundation size soil layer depth and piles were performed to investigate the effects of the nonlinear soil layer on the horizontal and rotational dynamic stiffnesses and damping ratios of the foundation-soil system According to the study results nonlinear prperties of a soil laryer decreeased horizontal and rotational linear stiffnesses and increased damping ratios largely Effects of foundation size soil layer depth and piles were also significant suggesting the necessity of nonlinear seismic analyses of structures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.383-390
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• 2020

Since the dynamic behaviors of liquid storage tanks on flexible soil are significantly influenced by the fluid-structure-soil interaction (FSSI), its effects must be rigorously considered for accurate earthquake analysis and seismic design of the storage system. In this study, dynamic analysis is performed for a rectangular liquid storage tank on flexible soil, and its dynamic characteristics are examined by rigorously considering the effects of FSSI. The hydrodynamic force and the interaction force between the structure and soil are evaluated using the finite-element approach. In the evaluations, mid-point integrated finite elements and viscous dampers are considered for energy radiation into the infinite soil. The effective earthquake force is then obtained from free-field analysis. It is thus demonstrated that the earthquake responses of the rectangular liquid storage tank on flexible soil are significantly influenced by the FSSI.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.87-92
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• 2000

The real situation of an underground reinforced concrete(RC) structure with the surrounding soil medium subjected to seismic load is quite difficult to be simulated through an expensive work and, even if it is possible to arrange such an experiment, it will be too expensive. So development of analytical method can be applied usefully to seismic design and seismic retrofit through an analysis of seismic behavior and seismic performance evaluation. A path-dependent constitutive model for soil that can estimate the response of soil layer is indispensible for dealing with kinematic interaction of RC/soil entire system under seismic loads. And interface model which deals with the dynamic interaction of RC/soil entire system is also necessary. In this study, finite element analysis program that can consider path-dependent behavior of RC and soil, and interfacial behavior between RC and soil is developed for rational seismic analysis of RC/soil entire system. Using this program, nonlinear behavior of interface between RC and soil is analyzed, and the effect of interfacial behavior to entire system is investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.251-262
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• 2017

The present research intends to study the effects of the seismic soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI) on the dynamic response of various buildings. Two methods including direct and Cone model were studied through 3D finite element method using ABAQUS software. Cone model as an approximate method to consider the SFSI phenomenon was developed and evaluated for both high and low rise buildings. Effect of soil nonlinearity, foundation rigidity and embedment as well as friction coefficient between soil-foundation interfaces during seismic excitation are investigated. Validity and performance of both approaches are evaluated as reference graphs for Cone model and infinite boundary condition, soil nonlinearity and amplification factor for direct method. A series of calculations by DeepSoil for inverse earthquake record modification was conducted. A comparison of the two methods was carried out by root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) tool for maximum lateral displacement and story shear forces which verifies that Cone model results have good agreement with direct method. It was concluded that Cone method is a convenient, fast and rather accurate method as an approximate way to count for soil media.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.132-139
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• 2000

This paper presents a new hybrid approach for nonlinear dynamic analysis of the soil-structure interaction system in the time domain. It employs, in a practical manner, a linear SSI program and a general-purpose nonlinear finite element program. In order to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed method, seismic response analyses are carried out for a free-field problem and a 2-D subway station. The results indicate that the proposed methodology gives reasonable solution for the linear/nonlinear SSI problem utilizing a general-purpose finite element program. Some further studies will endorse the applicability of the method to various soil-structure interaction problems.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.379-390
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• 2018

In this study, a numerical approach based on mid-point integrated finite elements and a viscous boundary is proposed for time-domain wave-propagation analyses in infinite poroelastic media. The proposed approach is accurate, efficient, and easy to implement in time-domain analyses. In the approach, an infinite domain is truncated at some distance. The truncated domain is represented by mid-point integrated finite elements with real element-lengths and a viscous boundary is attached to the end of the domain. Given that the dynamic behaviors of the proposed model can be expressed in terms of mass, damping, and stiffness matrices only, it can be implemented easily in the displacement-based finite-element formulation. No convolutional operations are required for time-domain calculations because the coefficient matrices are constant. The proposed numerical approach is applied to typical wave-propagation and soil-structure interaction problems. The model is verified to produce accurate and stable results. It is demonstrated that the numerical approach can be applied successfully to nonlinear soil-structure interaction problems.