Influence of site–city interaction on the response of structures considering soil stiffness, height, and number of buildings

Abstract

Simultaneous effects of soil and a number of adjacent structures sitting next to each other is perceived as the site–city interaction (SCI). To better analyze the seismic behavior of the structures, the inclusion of the SCI appears to be essential. Accordingly, the SCI is affected by a number of parameters such as soil profile, urban congestion, as well as dynamic properties of buildings and soil layers. In this study, considering four soil types according to Eurocode8 (EC8) and a series of structures in single and multiple configurations (buildings arranged in 3 × 3 and 5 × 5 groups) representing an ideal city, 3D dynamic analyses were conducted using SASSI2000 software. Then, the acceleration response of the structures placed in the middle of each configuration was compared with that of the single structures to evaluate the influence of soil properties particularly, its stiffness as well as number and height of the structures on the response of the base and top nodes of multi–degree‐of‐freedom structures incorporating the SCI effects. Based on the results, the inclusion of SCI reduced the acceleration values especially at top of the structure (7% and 15% for the bottom and top of the structure on average). In addition, as soil stiffness decreases and the number of buildings increases, the influence of SCI becomes profound. According to the complexities of the SCI, to acquire more accurate results, further parameters such as the type of seismic waves, irregularity of buildings, and faulting mechanism have to be taken into account.

Seismic Structure‐Soil‐Structure Interaction between inelastic structures

“…The rapid growth of computational power has permitted the development of sophisticated analysis, where it is possible to consider nonlinearities (both in the soil and structures), radiation damping of a half-space soil medium, and complicated geometric configurations. Therefore, the Finite Element method (FEM), [6][7][8][9][10][11] boundary element method (BEM), [12][13][14] or hybrid Finite/BEM [15][16][17][18] has been widely used to assess SSSI problems. Nevertheless, these sophisticated techniques almost inevitably result in a model with a considerable number of degrees of freedom.…”

Experimental and analytical study on ground motion characteristics under structure cluster disturbance

“…It was found that the SSCI could reduce the seismic response of most buildings, while certain buildings suffered more severe earthquake damage, and this might be due to the seismic frequency spectrum, site conditions and structural dynamic characteristics. Additionally, parametric analyses [25][26][27][28][29][30] were conducted on the influence of SSCI in specific situations through numerical simulation.…”

Parametric analysis and quantitative study on the influence of structure cluster on ground motion

“…Meanwhile, the site-structure cluster interaction (SSCI) caused by crowded buildings in urban areas has been widely recognized by structural engineers and researchers. Previous researches [e.g., (Bard et al 1988;Chávez-Garcia and Bard 1994;Ditommaso et al 2010;Lu et al 2018;Norouzi et al 2020;Kato and Wang 2022;)] have shown that the dynamic interaction between the structure cluster and the site can significantly affect the propagation trajectory of seismic waves within the underlying soil, and result in the variation of structural seismic response. It undoubtedly brings a huge challenge to the analyses and assessments of building seismic damage in the urban environment.…”