Numerical and experimental studying of soil-structure interaction in structures resting on soft soil using Laminar Shear Box Article in Press

In the present work, the effect of Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) in structures resting on a soft soil, through numerical modelling and shaking table tests have been studied. In theoretical studies two types of models namely fixed base and flexible base structure were subjected to three selected earthquake records. Fully Nonlinear method was employed for analyzing all of the numerical models and Finite Element Method (FEM) was used for modelling soil beneath the structure. In order to verify the outputs of the numerical modelling, shaking table tests were carried out. In experimental tests, scaled form of the main structure, according to scaling laws was built. Laminar Shear Box (LSB) as a container, was built to implement soil in the soil-structure model on the shaking table. By comparison between the numerical modelling and the shaking table tests results, a good agreement was observed. Therefore, the results of the comparison between the fixed base and the flexible base, in the numerical modelling are reliable. In this study, was demonstrated that if the structure rested on the soft soil, is located in a site which is susceptible to experience strong earthquakes, the necessity of considering SSI effects is avoidable.