Performance Enhancement of Soil-Structure Systems Using a Controlled Rocking

TL;DR

This study investigates how controlled rocking of foundations can enhance earthquake resilience of soil-structure systems by dissipating energy, using finite element analysis of nonlinear foundation behavior across various geomaterials.

Contribution

It introduces a finite element approach to analyze nonlinear foundation behavior and explores the effectiveness of controlled rocking in energy dissipation for different soil stiffnesses.

Findings

Rotational foundation behavior dissipates significant seismic energy.

Softer geomaterials enhance energy dissipation through rocking.

Controlled rocking improves soil-structure system performance during earthquakes.

Abstract

Application of performance-based design (PBD) in earthquake geotechnical design codes has been gaining attention for the past decade. Strong vibrations (e.g., earthquake loading) may generate an uplift or a partial separation of shallow foundations from the underneath soil. To minimize the damage and keep the superstructure safe from the vibrations, a controlled rocking can be exploited. In this study, a finite element method is used to investigate the effect of nonlinear behavior of foundation geomaterial on the rocking behavior of soil-structure systems. To get a better insight about the rocking behavior of the soil-structure system, nonlinear elastic-perfectly plastic behavior is considered for the simulated geomaterial of the foundation. Next, a parametric study, using a wide range of geomaterials with different stiffness values, is conducted in accordance with high-rise structures with different configurations. The results indicate that a significant proportion of the input energy is dissipated by deploying rotational behavior of shallow foundations especially for the structures on softer geomaterials.