• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2020

In the seismic design of bridges, formation of plastic hinges plays an important role in the dissipation of seismic energy. In the case of conventional fixed-base bridges, the plastic hinges are allowed to form in the superstructure alone. During seismic event, such bridges may be safe from collapse but the superstructure undergoes significant plastic deformations. As an alternative design approach, the plastic hinges are guided to form in the soil thereby utilizing the inevitable yielding of the soil. Rocking foundations work on this concept. The formation of plastic hinges in the soil reduces the load and displacement demands on the superstructure. This study aims at evaluating the seismic response of bridge pier supported on rocking shallow foundation. For this purpose, a BNWF model is implemented in OpenSees platform. The capability of the BNWF model to capture the SSI effects, nonlinear behavior and dynamic loading response are validated using the centrifuge and shake table test results. A comparative study is performed between the seismic response of the bridge pier supported on the rocking shallow foundation and conventional fixed-base foundation. Results of the study have established the beneficial effects of using the rocking shallow foundation for the seismic response analysis of the bridge piers.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2022

In this study, centrifuge model tests were performed to evaluate the seismic response of multi-DOF structures with shallow foundations. Also, elastic time history analysis on the fixed-base model was performed and compared with the experimental results. As a result of the centrifuge model test, earthquake amplification at the fundamental vibration frequency of the soil (= 2.44 Hz) affected the third vibration mode frequency (= 2.50 Hz) of the long-period structure and the first vibration mode (= 2.27 Hz) of the short-period structure. The shallow foundation lengthened the periods of the structures by 14-20% compared to the fixed base condition. The response spectrum of acceleration measured at the shallow foundation was smaller than that of free-field motion due to the foundation damping effect. The ultimate moment capacity of the soil-foundation system limited the dynamic responses of the multi-DOF structures. Therefore, the considerations on period lengthening, foundation damping, and ultimate moment capacity of the soil-foundation system might improve the seismic design of the multi-DOF building structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2017

In this paper, a different technique to predict the effects of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on seismic response of building systems is investigated. The technique use a machine learning algorithm called Support Vector Regression (SVR) with technical and analytical results as input features. Normally, the effects of SSI on seismic response of existing building systems can be identified by different types of large data sets. Therefore, predicting and estimating the seismic response of building is a difficult task. It is possible to approximate a real valued function of the seismic response and make accurate investing choices regarding the design of building system and reduce the risk involved, by giving the right experimental and/or numerical data to a machine learning regression, such as SVR. The seismic response of both single-degree-of-freedom system and six-storey RC frame which can be represent of a broad range of existing structures, is estimated using proposed SVR model, while allowing flexibility of the soil-foundation system and SSI effects. The seismic response of both single-degree-of-freedom system and six-storey RC frame which can be represent of a broad range of existing structures, is estimated using proposed SVR model, while allowing flexibility of the soil-foundation system and SSI effects. The results show that the performance of the technique can be predicted by reducing the number of real data input features. Further, performance enhancement was achieved by optimizing the RBF kernel and SVR parameters through grid search.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.249-267
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• 2003

In this study, circular plates subjected to general type of loads and supported on a two-parameter elastic foundation are analysed. The stiffness, elastic bedding and soil shear effect matrices of a fully compatible ring sector plate element, developed by Saygun (1974), are obtained numerically assuming variable thickness of the element. Ring sector soil finite element is also defined to determine the deflection of the soil surface outside the domain of the plate in order to establish the interaction between the plate and the soil. According to Vallabhan and Das (1991) the elastic bedding (C) and shear parameters ($C_T$) of the foundation are expressed depending on the elastic constants ($E_s$, $V_s$) and the thickness of compressible soil layer ($H_s$) and they are calculated with a suitable iterative procedure. Using ring sector elements presented in this paper, permits the generalization of the loading and the boundary conditions of the soil outside the plate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.573-588
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• 2009

In this paper a four-node hybrid stress element is proposed for analysing arbitrarily shaped plates on a two parameter elastic foundation. The element is developed by combining a hybrid plate stress element and a soil element. The formulation is based on Hellinger-Reissner variational principle in which both inter element compatible boundary displacement and equilibrated stress fields for the plate as well as the foundation are chosen separately. This formulation also allows a low order polynomial interpolation functions. Numerical examples are presented to show that the validity and efficiency of the present element for the plate analysis resting on an elastic foundation. In these examples the effect of soil depth, interaction between closed plates on soil parameters, comparison with Winkler hypothesis is investigated.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.433-445
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• 2020

A new code, called PRaFULL (Piled Raft Foundation Under Lateral Load), was developed for the analysis of laterally loaded Combined Pile Raft Foundation (CPRF). The proposed code considers the contribution offered by the raft-soil contact and the interactions between all the CPRF system components. The nonlinear behaviour of the reinforced concrete pile and the soil are accounted. As shallower soil layers are of great relevance in the lateral response of a pile foundation, PRaFULL includes the possibility to consider layered soil profiles with appropriate properties. The shadowing effect on the ultimate soil pressure is accounted, when dealing with pile groups, as proposed by the Strain Wedge Model. PRaFULL BEM code obviously requires less computational resources compared to FEM (Finite Element Method) or FDM (Finite Difference Method) codes. The proposed code was validated in the linear elastic range by comparisons with the code APRAF (Analysis of Piled Raft Foundations). The reliability of the procedure to predict piled raft performance was then verified in nonlinear range by comparisons with both centrifuge tests and computer code PRAB.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.3 s.29
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• pp.19-30
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• 1998

In this paper, the dynamic analysis of a dolphin system for mooring a floating structure such as barge mounted plant is studied. The characteristics of the soil-pile system are simplified by a set of equivalent spring elements at the mudline. To evaluate the equivalent spring constants, the finite difference method is used. Since the characteristics of the soil-pile system are nonlinear in case of soft foundation, the nonlinear dynamic analysis technique is needed. The Newmark $beta$ method incorporating the modified Newton-Raphson method(initial stiffness method) is used. A numerical analysis is performed on two mooring dolphin systems on soft foundation and rock foundation. In case of the rock foundation, the characteristics are found to be nearly linear, so the linear dynamic analysis may be sufficient to consider the foundation effect. But in case of soft foundation, the non-linearity of the foundation appears to be very signigicant, so the nonlinear dynamic analysis si needed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2024

In this paper, the performance of under-foundation isolators against generally annoying train-induced vibrations was examined experimentally. The effect of foundation type on the efficacy of such isolators was investigated for the first time. To this end, laboratory models including a soil container, soil, building with three types of foundation (i.e., single, strip, and mat), and isolator layer were employed. Through various dynamic tests, the effects of foundation type, isolation frequency, and the dominant frequency of train load on the isolator's performance were studied. The results demonstrated that the vibration level in the unisolated building with the strip and mat foundation was, respectively, 29 and 38% lower than in the building with the single foundation. However, the efficacy of the isolator in the building with the single foundation was, respectively, 21 and 40% higher than in the building with the strip and mat foundation. Furthermore, a lower isolation frequency and a higher excitation frequency resulted in greater isolator efficacy. The best vibration suppression occurred when the excitation frequency was close to the floor's natural frequency.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.51-81
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• 2013

A wide literature review on Static Soil-Structure-Interaction (SSI) is done to highlight the key impacts of soil complexity on structural members of framed structures. Attention is paid to the developed approaches, i.e., conventional and Finite Element Method (FEM), to emphasize on deficiencies and merits of the proposed methods according to their applicability, accuracy and power to model and idealization of the superstructures as well as the soil continuum. Proposed hypothesis are much deeply discussed herein for better understanding which is normally neglected in literature review papers due to the large number of references and limit of space.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2010

Foundation plays an important role in the offshore wind turbine system. Different from conventional foundations, the suction caisson is proven to be economical and reliable. In this work, three-dimensional finite element method is used to check the suitability of suction caisson foundation. NREL 5MW wind turbine is chosen as a baseline model in our simulation. The maximum overturning moment and vertical load at the mudline are calculated using FAST and Bladed. Meanwhile the soil-structure interaction response from our simulation is also compared with the experiment data from Oxford university. The design parameter such as caisson length, diameter of skirt and spacing of multipod are investigated. Accordingly based on these parameters suggestions are given to use suction caisson foundations more efficiently.