EFFECT OF NONLINEAR STRUCTURAL RESPONSE ANALYSIS FOR SSI

Abstract

Liquefaction engineering is one of the challenging areas in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Especially after urban areas are struck by big earthquakes which cause considerable damage in structures due to liquefaction, it has been realized that more efforts should be made to understand the interaction between structural performance and geotechnical aspects. The state of the practice in the assessment of liquefaction beneath a structure is to treat the soil as if it in the free-field. This practice has been developed as it is believed to be a conservative approach and easy to perform. In addition, it does not require structural properties. However, it is observed after recent earthquakes (e.g. Kobe 1995, Kocaeli 1999), that liquefaction in the free-field is closer to foundation structure-induced liquefaction. The aim of the present study is to improve the analyses involving SSI, with the soil being represented as a continuum approximated with solid elements. It is to investigate various structural approaches and reliability to model SSI. The response in the superstructure and influence on the outcomes of simplifications in the SSI with springs performing the subgrade are also analysed