Influence of the soil-structure interaction on the seismic behavior of buildings on shallow foundations

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the mobility of shallow foundations relative to the subgrade by considering two cases. In the first, the structure is fixed at its base. For the second, the foundation is replaced by hinges and springs, where their stiffnesses are expressed in terms of the geometry of the foundation and soil shear strength. The comparison is made on a dynamic model when the two tested cases are confronted. Thereafter, a parametric study is considered to see the effect of all the parameters that can play a key role in the structural response. Then, these results will be validated on real structure cases, by considering important Algerian earthquakes: the one of Aïn Témouchent in 1999 and the earthquake of Boumerdès in 2003. The extracted results will permit to make the point on all the elements that may influence the seismic response of buildings while considering the interface soil-foundation-structure. © 2014, International Journal of GEOMATE.