Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Asrat Worku1
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University
(Currently Operations Manager at Gibb International, Nairobi, Kenya)
overturning moment at the foundation, which in their concern during the recent annual gathering of
turn cause deformation of the soil. This the Ethiopian Association of Civil Engineers, about
deformation initiates new waves propagating into the associated escalation of material and
the soil mass. The waves carry away some energy construction cost.
with them and act as a source of energy dissipation
in addition to the material/hysteretic damping With due account to this legitimate concern, the
inherent in the system as in any other material like paper attempts to demonstrate that a good potential
the superstructure itself. This form of SSI is known exists for some of the costs associated with the
as inertial SSI. Its effect in most structures is to increased demand for base shear due to the new site
increase total displacement and to decrease the base amplification factors to be at least partially offset
shear demand due to the associated energy by the beneficial effects of inertial SSI, if the
dissipation into the soil and to the increased period appropriate provisions are introduced in the new
of vibration of the system. version of the code currently under revision and if
the provisions are properly employed. The study
The effect of SSI is thus beneficial for most shows that the savings could be of significant
building structures in terms of base shear, if not proportion in some cases, even though this must be
strictly always. Unfortunately, this beneficial ascertained by design engineers on a case-by-case
aspect of site effect is mostly ignored by engineers basis.
with the conviction that the design would already
be on the safe side without the additional INERTIAL SSI AND IMPEDANCE
computational effort needed to include SSI effects. FUNCTIONS
This is despite the fact that code provisions related
to this phenomenon have been availed since the In order to understand the influence of inertial SSI
late 1970s, though not as obligatory requirements. on the response of building structures subjected to
The original versions of these provisions have seismic ground motions, it is helpful to briefly
meanwhile been updated through results of introduce the basic principles and concepts of
calibration works conducted using actual records dynamics of foundations supported by flexible
from strong earthquakes like the 1989 Loma Prieta media like soils. For this purpose, we consider the
and 1994 Northridge earthquakes[1-3]. Results of vibration of the rigid circular foundation of radius
such works and experimental verifications are R0 resting on the surface of the ground idealized as
encouraging the use of the most recent code-based a homogenous elastic half space as shown in Fig. 1
SSI provisions [2,4,5]. and excited by the vertical harmonic load. Let the
half space have an elastic modulus of E and a mass
In relation to the work currently underway to revise density of . For purposes of simplicity and better
the 1995 Ethiopian Building Code Standard insight, let us further represent the half space by the
(EBCS) [6], the site-dependent design spectra of rudimentary model of the truncated solid cone of
either the current European code or of the cross-sectional area of A0 at the ground level which
American codes are expected to be directly is the same as the contact area of the foundation.
adopted. These spectra are more demanding than The cone defines the angle with the horizontal
those of the current EBCS 8 [6] in many aspects and the height h0 up to its apex above the ground
including the associated changes in return period of [7].
the design earthquake and the degrees of
amplification due to the various classes of site soils
[3,6]. Understandably, engineers have expressed
Figure 1 (a) A circular rigid foundation on the surface of a half space subjected to a harmonic load and its
simplified conical representation; (b) free-body diagram of the foundation; (c) free-body diagram of a
soil element from the soil column; (d) a SDOF model of the rigid foundation
After formulating the equation of motion of the The semi-infinite continuum providing support
conical soil beam based on the equilibrium of the to the foundation and subjected to dynamic
differential soil element isolated in Fig. 1(c), one loading can be replaced by a simple SDOF
can readily derive the differential equation for the mechanical model of zero mass consisting of a
capping rigid circular foundation at z=0 as spring and a dashpot of coefficients, K and C,
respectively, arranged in parallel;
EA0 EA
0 t
mf w w 0 t 0 w0 t Po sin t (1)
cL h0 The parameters of the SDOF model for the
foundation soil can be expressed in terms of
Where mf is the mass of the foundation; cL E
the foundation geometry, the elastic
is the velocity of the longitudinal elastic wave parameters of the continuum and a pertinent
travelling away from the foundation through the wave velocity; and
conical soil column; ω is the frequency of the
harmonic load; and w0 is the vertical displacement Unlike in conventional dynamic models of
of the foundation [7]. structures, the damping term in Eq. (1) is not
an assumed addition; it is a mathematical
This equation is similar to the conventional outcome showing that the damping is an
equation of motion of the single-degree-of-freedom intrinsic behavior of the system. This term, the
(SDOF) model shown in Fig. 1(d) given by second term in Eq. (1), represents an additional
equilibrant force due to energy dissipation
0 t Cw 0 t Kw0 t Po sin t
mf w through waves propagating away from the
(2) foundation as represented by the wave velocity
in the coefficient. It is in addition to the
Comparison of Eqs. (1) and (2) results in the material damping of the continuum that is not
following expressions for the parameters of the considered in this discussion.
SDOF model in terms of the geometry of the
foundation and the elastic properties of the soil: These important outcomes were observed by
Reissner [8] probably for the first time. However,
K EA0 h0 ; C EA0 cL (3) in a more rigorous treatment of the system shown
in Fig. 1(a), the spring and dashpot coefficients of
This interesting result obtained on the basis of a Eq. (3) are dependent on a number of factors
rudimentary idealization of the soil-foundation including the mode and frequency of excitation,
system as a truncated conical soil column capped foundation size, foundation shape, foundation
by the rigid foundation (Fig. 1(a)) demonstrates the embedment depth, the dynamic behavior of the
following fundamental facts: soil, soil heterogeneity and stratification. These
coefficients, commonly termed as impedance
On the other hand, the complex-valued impedance Note that the radii in the two cases are different for
functions obtained from rigorous mathematical non-circular foundations and are determined by
treatments of the semi-infinite continuum are often
presented in the literature in the following form [7- equating the area, A, and moment of inertia, I , for
12]: rocking motion of the actual foundation to those of
the equivalent circular foundation. Thus,
K K s i a0 (6)
Rh A ; R 4 4 I (9)
Figure 2 Dynamic impedance coefficients for horizontal translation and rocking corresponding
to two values of hysteretic damping (After [13])
The variation of the impedance functions with released. The additional DOFs consist of a
frequency in this figure is fairly steady over a translation in each direction of the three Cartesian
significant range of the frequency parameter, a0 , coordinate axes and a rotation around each of them.
such that closed-form relations can be easily fitted
For excitation due to an upward propagating
to them. However, the functions are generally more seismic shear waves, inclusion of the two DOFs at
erratic for other cases, especiallly for layered soils. the base consisting of the horizontal and rocking
motions is sufficient for planar analysis. This
For a given problem of specific conditions, the condition is depicted in Fig. 3 for a superstructure
appropriate impedance functions can be used in
represented by a SDOF model, in which the
order to establish the dynamic spring and dashpot complex-valued springs are introduced at the base
coefficients as per Eq. (7). Important factors to be in each of the horizontal and rotational DOFs.
further accounted for include foundation
Accordingly, the planar system now has three
embedment depth, foundation depth, foundation degrees of freedom. This representation is
flexibility, soil layering and increase in stiffness of equivalent to a real-valued spring and dashpot
soil with depth. Available literature should be
arranged in parallel for each DOF. The height h
consulted to this end [4, 7, 10, 11]. refers to the height of the roof in the case of a
single-story building and to the centroid of the
INFLUENCE OF INERTIAL SSI ON DESIGN inertial forces associated with the fundamental
SPECTRA mode in the case of a multi-story building which is
commonly taken as 0.7h [3, 4].
In the most general 3D case, a single mass
oscillator fixed at its base acquires six more
degrees of freedom (DOF) when the base is
(a) (b)
Figure 3 (a) A SDOF structural model with a flexible-base; (b) A replacement SDOF model
30
25 FD=3%
System damping ( %)
5%
20
10%
15
15%
10 20%
5 FBSD=5%
0
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
Period ratio
Figure 4 Variation of the system damping with T T for different foundation damping
The plots show that the overall effective damping figure shows that for a fixed-base period of up to
of the flexible-base system is usually larger than around 0.3s, SSI has the effect of increasing the
the fixed-base damping (FBSD= 5%) with the spectral response of the structure. However, for the
exception of the rare case of the foundation most common case of building structures having a
damping itself being much smaller than 5%, and fundamental natural period larger than about 0.3s,
the period ratio is large. For any given foundation SSI has the effect of reducing the spectral response
damping, the system damping gradually decreases and thereby reducing the design base shear force
with increasing period ratio. (compare ordinates of the two curves
corresponding to the pairs of T and T on either
The influence of the lengthened period and the sides of T 0.3s ).
modified damping on a smoothened response
spectrum is qualitatively shown in Fig. 5. The
Figure 5 Schematic representation of influence of SSI on design spectra (adapted from Stewart et al [4])
A more helpful insight into the influence of SSI on respectively, over the upper 30m depth in
code-specified design spectra can be obtained by accordance with EC 8 [20]. The corresponding
considering the EC 8 [20] Type 1 design spectra design spectra for the two site classes are presented
specified for five different site soil classes as separately in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) together with the
shown in Fig. 6 for a structural damping ratio of spectrum for Site Class A – rock site.
5%, whereby Site Class A represents rock site. The
various site soil classes are defined in the code For Site Class C, the foundation damping ratio
[20]. The amplification potential of the site soils is including both material (hysteretic) and geometric
evident from the curves. These spectra are likely to damping is conservatively estimated to reach up to
be directly adoptedby EBCS, which is currently 10% for the purpose of this study. The
under revision. corresponding period lengthening of the SDOF
system due to SSI can also be reasonably estimated
Let us further consider the two soft site soil classes to reach 10%.
of C and D characterized by an average shear-wave
velocity of 180 to 360 m/s and less than 180 m/s,
Figure 6 EC 8-2004 design spectra for different site conditions for a damping ratio of 5% (After [20])
3.5
3 Site Class A
2.5 Site Class C
2
Se/ag
4 Site Class A
3.5
Site Class D
3
2.5 Found. Damp. 15%
Se/ag
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3
T (s)
(b)
Figure 7 Comparison of SSI-modified design spectra against EC 8 design spectra for (a) Site Class C;
(b) Site Class D
With the effective system damping calculated from Similarly, a little larger foundation damping of up
Eq. (11) or read from Fig. 4 as 13.76%, the to 15% is assumed for the softer Site Class D with
corresponding design spectral curve is determined corresponding period lengthening of up to 15%.
as per appropriate provisions of EC 8 [20] by The effective damping determined in a similar
scaling down the site-dependent spectral curve manner as in Site Class C is 18.3% and resulted in
using the following factor to account for the the dashed curves shown in Fig. 7(b). In this case, a
modified damping: reduction in the design base shear of up to 35%
seems attainable.
10 / 5 0.55 (12)
The modified spectral curves for the two site
classes of EC8 are compared in Figure 8 with the
In Eq. (12), is the effective system damping that corresponding site-dependent design spectra
accounts for both structural and foundation specified by the current EBCS 8 [6]. In Fig. 8(a),
damping. The plot is shown in Fig. 7(a) as the design spectra for Site classes A and B of EBCS 8
dashed curve and indicates that a significant are compared with the EC 8 design spectrum for
reduction in the design base shear up to 30% could Site Class C modified for the effective damping,
be achieved for structures with a fundamental whereas in Fig. 8(b), the spectra for site classes A
period larger than about 0.2 seconds, to which most and C of EBCS 8 are compared against the EC 8
building structures belong. Even though the SSI design spectrum for Site Class D modified for the
effect is more visible for rigid (short-period) corresponding effective damping.
structures, the influence on the more flexible long-
period structures is also significant.
3
Found. damp. 10%
0
0 1 2 3 4
T (s)
(a)
Se/Ag
1
0
0 1 2 3 4
T (s)
(b)
Figure 8: Comparison of SSI-modified design spectra against EBCS 8 design spectra for
(a) Site Class B; (b) Site Class C
It is interesting to note from the plots that, the in this paper. Furthermore, it should be pointed out
design spectra, and thus the design base shear, as that SSI has also the effect of increasing the lateral
per EC 8 [20] modified for inertial SSI effects can displacement thereby having an impact on P-∆
even be significantly lower than the spectra effect and the ductility requirement. This aspect,
specified by the less stringent EBCS 8 spectra for which has not been addressed in this work, should
the corresponding soil classes over a significant be appropriately taken care of by the
range of fundamental period. This is particularly implementation of pertinent provisions during the
evident in Fig. 8(b) in which reductions by more design process.
than 50% are achieved for long-period structures.
This shows that accounting for the influence of Nonetheless, the plots in Figs. 7and 8 demonstrate
inertial SSI could even result in base shear forces that, even though the net effect of the site soil could
significantly lower than those obtained from the eventually be to amplify the rock-site spectra for
site-dependent spectra of EBCS 8 currently in use. some structures, this could be substantially offset
The reduction would have even been much larger, by properly accounting for inertial SSI effects,
had the SSI provisions been directly applied on the which are mostly beneficial. If properly employed,
site-dependent spectra of EBCS 8 instead of on the this approach has the promising potential to lead to
current EC 8 spectra. This can make the a significant financial saving.
introduction of SSI provisions into the future issue
of EBCS 8 an attractive option so that potential CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
construction cost escalations associated with the
adoption of the more demanding site-dependent The material presented in this paper demonstrated
spectra from current codes like EC8 are at least that site soils have two major influences on the
partially offset. response of structures subjected to earthquake
ground motions. The more widely recognized
Larger scales of reductions can be expected for the effect is to amplify the ground acceleration at the
much softer site soil classes of EC 8 [20]. In all rock level as the seismic waves travel through the
cases, to be noted is the fact that the foundation soil. This effect is obviously detrimental to
damping and the period lengthening are the key structures founded on such soils, especially to
factors that affect the amount of spectral reduction those, the fundamental period of which matches or
due to SSI. However, it should be recalled that the is closer to the predominant period of the site soil
reductions demonstrated in the above plots are formation, due to resonance. The other important
based on assumed ranges of foundation damping influence, which is the subject of this article and
and period lengthening for the purpose of this less known by many, is inertial SSI, which often
study, even though these are based on reasonable has the beneficial effect of reducing design spectral
engineering judgment. Hence, the actual gains values or base shear in the seismic design of a large
must be strictly established on a case-by-case basis class of building structures. It is observed that the
by the structural engineer, and no generalization is effects of both site amplification and SSI increase
warranted based merely on the material presented
with decreasing stiffness of the site soil so that they [5] Tileylioglu, S., Stewart, J. and Nigbor, R.,
tend to balance each other, if not equally. “Dynamic Stiffness and Damping of Shallow
Foundation from Forced Vibrationof a Field
As per current knowledge, the amplification Test Structure,” Journal of Geotechnical and
potential of site soils is much more than stipulated Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol.
in old building codes like EBCS 8 [6]. The paper 137, No. 4, April 2011, pp 344-35.
has shown that the cost implications due to site
amplifications, which in some cases could be [6] Ministry of Works and Urban Development,
prohibitive, could be significantly offset if SSI “Design of Structures for Earthquake
provisions are accounted for in the analysis. The Resistance,” Ethiopian Building Code
necessary procedures for SSI analysis are available Standard (EBCS 8), Addis Ababa, 1995.
in recent code provisions like in NEHRP 2003 [3].
Recent reports have shown that current code- [7] Worku, A.,“BauwerksschwingungeninfolgeE
specified relationships for computing the period rdbebenunterBerucksichtigung der
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provisions would give reliable results. It is thus
recommended that these updated provisions are
[8] Reissner, E., “Stationaere,
incorporated into the ongoing revision of EBCS 8
Axiasymmetrischedurchschuettelende Masse
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erregteSchwingungeeineshomogenenelastisc
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[4] Stewart, J., Fenves, G. and Seed, R., [13] Veletsos, A., and Verbic, B., ‘‘Vibration of
“Seismic Soil-Structure Interaction in viscoelastic foundations’’’ J. Earthquake
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[15] Worku, A., "A closed-form solution
procedure to the vibration of non-classically [19] Veletsos, A., and Nair, V., “Seismic
damped systems subjected to harmonic Interaction of Structures on Hysteretic
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[16] Worku, A., "An Analytical Solution [20] European Committee for Standardization,
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Structure Systems subjected to Periodic Resistance (EN 1998-1: 2004)”, Brussels,
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