• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.549-561
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• 2012

Many building foundations are embedded, however it is not easy to compact the backfill around the foundation especially for the deeply embedded ones. The soil condition around the embedded foundation may affect the seismic response of a building due to the weak contact between the soil and the foundation. In this paper, the response accelerations in the short-period range and at the period of 1 second (in the long-period range) for a seismic design spectrum specified in the IBC design code were compared considering perfect and poor backfills to investigate the effect of backfill compaction around the embedded foundation. An in-house finite-element software (P3DASS) which has the capability of horizontal pseudo-3D seismic analysis with linear soil layers was used to perform the seismic analyses of the structure-soil system with an embedded foundation. Seismic analyses were carried out with 7 bedrock earthquake records provided by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), scaling the peak ground accelerations to 0.1 g. The results indicate that the poor backfill is not detrimental to the seismic response of a building, if the foundation is not embedded deeply in the soft soil. However, it is necessary to perform the seismic analysis for the structure-soil system embedded deeply in the soft soil to check the seismic resonance due to the soft soil layer beneath the foundation, and to compact the backfill as well as possible.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.281-302
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• 2010

An extended model for the response of a rigid footing on a reinforced foundation bed on super soft soil is proposed by incorporating the rough membrane element into the granular bed. The super soft soil, the granular bed and the reinforcement are modeled as non-linear Winkler springs, non-linear Pasternak layer and rough membrane respectively. The hyperbolic stress-displacement response of the super soft soil and the hyperbolic shear stress-shear strain response of the granular fill are considered. The finite deformation theory is used since large settlements are expected to develop due to deformation of the super-soft soil. Parametric studies quantify the effect of each parameter on the stress-settlement response of the reinforced foundation bed, the settlement and tension profiles.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

Seismic analyses of a pile under a large rigid basement foundation embedded in the homogeneous soil layer were performed practically by a response displacement method assuming a sinusoidal wave form. However, it is hard to take into account the characteristics of a large mat foundation and a heterogeneous soil layer with the response displacement method. The response displacement method is relevant to the 2D problems for longitudinal structures such as tunnel, underground cave structure, etc., but might not be relevant with isolated foundations for building structures. In this study, seismic pile analysis by a pseudo 3D finite element method was carried out to compare numerical results with results of the response displacement method considering 3D characteristics of a foundation-soil system which is important for the building foundation analyses. Study results show that seismic analyses results of a response displacement method are similar to those of a pseudo 3D numerical method for stiff and dense soil layers, but they are too conservative for a soft soil layer inducing large soil pressures on the foundation wall and large pile displacements due to ignored foundation rigidity and resistance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.101-119
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• 2005

An efficient methodology is presented to evaluate the seismic behavior of a Fluid-Elevated Tank-Foundation/Soil system taking the embedment effects into accounts. The frequency-dependent cone model is used for considering the elevated tank-foundation/soil interaction and the equivalent spring-mass model given in the Eurocode-8 is used for fluid-elevated tank interaction. Both models are combined to obtain the seismic response of the systems considering the sloshing effects of the fluid and frequency-dependent properties of soil. The analysis is carried out in the frequency domain with a modal analysis procedure. The presented methodology with less computational efforts takes account of; the soil and fluid interactions, the material and radiation damping effects of the elastic half-space, and the embedment effects. Some conclusions may be summarized as follows; the sloshing response is not practically affected by the change of properties in stiff soil such as S1 and S2 and embedment but affected in soft soil. On the other hand, these responses are not affected by embedment in stiff soils but affected in soft soils.

• 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.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.113-122
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• 1999

The importance of the vertical response of a structure was well recognized after the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake of Japan. However, most of the seismic design codes does not specified the site sail profiles, and the sail and foundations conditions were mostly neglected in the vertical seismic analyses of a structure. In this paper, the effects of foundation size, sail layer depth under the foundation, foundation embedment and pile foundation on the vertical seismic response spectra for both surface and embedded mat foundation were studied to investigate the effects of the soft soil layer on the vertical response of a structure excited with the vertical components of Taft and El Centro earthquakes, considering the sail profile types of $S_A,S_C,S_E$ in UBC-97, the medium and large size foundations, the soil layer depth under the foundation of 30 and 60m, the foundation embedment of 0 and 15m, and the precast reinforced concrete bearing piles installed in the soft soil deposit. According to the study results, the foundation size has a little effect on the vertical seismic response, However, the soil layer depth under the foundation of 60m has to be considered for the vertical seismic analysis of a structure as for the horizontal one. The embedded pile foundations as well as the surface ones built on the soft soil layer amplified the vertical seismic response of a structure very much.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.534-539
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• 2001

This paper presents the critical speed analysis of geogrid-reinforced rail roadbeds on soft soil. A rail roadbed on soft ground must be designed to avoid intolerable stress in the underlying soil and to give sufficient support for the rail system. At high speeds, the deformation of rail systems will gain dynamic amplification, and reach excessive values as a certain speed, here termed critical speed is approached. The elastic Winkler foundation model was used to predict the critical speed of geogrid-reinforced rail roadbeds on soft soil and the model properties were determined by the in-situ cyclic plate load test. Based on the parametric study of elastic beam on Winkler foundation model, the critical speed increase with the increase of the flexural risidity of subgrade EI and the stiffness coefficient of Winkler foundation k. From the in-situ cyclic load tests and analysis of elastic beam on Winkler foundation model, the critical speed increase with increase in number of reinforced layer and non-dimensional value for depth of first geogrid layers and the thickness of reinforced rail roadbed u/d.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.61-69
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• 2000

It is not easy to find a good soil condition due to the shortage of suitable land for construction work. The earth structure and buildings can be constructed over the soft soil. The soft soil must be treated either using the reinforcement element or dewatering. Most of land reclamation projects are being implemented along the south coast or west coast of the Korean Peninsula. The soils in these areas are covered with the soft marine clay, so soil and site improvement is the most important things to do. Pile foundation at the bottom of embankment can be constructed either in the soft ground or in the soil contaminated area. The purpose of this research is to develop "geogrid-reinforced piled embankment method" to prevent the differential settlement and increase the bearing capacity of soil. In this study, the effectiveness of the geogrid-reinforcement was studied by varying the space between piles and reinforcement conditions. Also, the geotechnical engineering properties of the embankment material and foundation soil were determined through the laboratory tests as well as the field tests. As a result, the site that the pile-spacing S = 3b with geogrid reinforcement is the most effective to reduce the differential settlement and increase load bearing capacity.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-232
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• 2023

A comprehensive study was conducted to design economical foundations for a number of buildings on soft cohesive soil in the southern coastal regions of Iran. Both static and seismic loads were considered in the design process. Cyclic experiments indicated that the cohesive soil of the area has potential for softening. Consequently, the major challenge in the design stages was relatively high dimensions of settlement, under both static and seismic loadings. Routine soil-improvement methods were too costly for the vast area of the project. After detailed numerical modeling of different scenarios, we concluded that, in following a performance-based design approach and applying a special time schedule of construction, most of the settlement would dissipate during the construction of the buildings. Making the foundation as rigid as possible was another way to prevent any probable differential settlement. Stiff subgrade of stone and lime mortar under the grid foundation and a reinforced concrete slab on the foundation were considered as appropriate to this effect. In favor of an economical design, in case the design earthquake strikes the site, the estimations indicate no collapse of the buildings even if considerable uniform settlements may occur. This is a considerable alternative design to costly soil-improvement methods.