Earthquakes may cause separation at the interface of the footing and the supporting ground. When a structure vibrates the contact interface between the footing and the soil is reduced. Because of the concentration of stress in the remaining contact area the soil beneath the footing can deform plastically. In this experimental study, the effect of footing uplift and soil plastic deformation on the development of a plastic hinge in the structure was investigated. A small scale model, with uplift permitted, was subjected to shake table excitations to simulate the seismic response of the prototype structure. To scale the structure a reformulated Cauchy number was developed. While the ductile behaviour of the structure was simulated by installing an artificial plastic hinge in the model, the potential for footing settlement was included by utilising a box of sand. The ground excitations were simulated based on Japanese design spectra that incorporate different frequency content. The combined effect of footing uplift, foundation soil plastic deformation and structural ductile behaviour on the induced vibrations is discussed.
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