Summary In soil‐structure interaction modeling of systems subjected to earthquake motions, it is classically assumed that the incoming wave field, produced by an earthquake, is unidimensional and vertically propagating. This work explores the validity of this assumption by performing earthquake soil‐structure interaction modeling, including explicit modeling of sources, seismic wave propagation, site, and structure. The domain reduction method is used to couple seismic (near‐field) simulations with local soil‐structure interaction response. The response of a generic nuclear power plant model computed using full earthquake soil‐structure interaction simulations is compared with the current state‐of‐the‐art method of deconvolving in depth the (simulated) free‐field motions, recorded at the site of interest, and assuming that the earthquake wave field is spatially unidimensional. Results show that the 1‐D wave‐field assumption does not hold in general. It is shown that the way in which full 3‐D analysis results differ from those which assume a 1‐D wave field is dependent on fault‐to‐site geometry and motion frequency content. It is argued that this is especially important for certain classes of soil‐structure systems of which nuclear power plants subjected to near‐field earthquakes are an example.

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Nonlinear waves in the soil Partition of incident earthquake energy into translation Torsion and wave motion a b s t r a c t A two-dimensional (2-D) model of a building supported by a rectangular, flexible foundation embedded in the soil is analyzed. The building, the foundation, and the soil have different physical properties. The building is assumed to be linear, but the soil and the foundation can experience nonlinear deformations. While the work spent for the development of nonlinear strains in the soil can consume a significant part of the input wave energy-and thus less energy is available for the excitation of the building-the nonlinear response in the soil and the foundation does not signficantly alter the nature of excitation of the base of the building. It is noted that the response of a building can be approximated by translation and torsion of the base for excitation by long, strong motion waves.

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The journal aims to encourage and enhance the role of mechanics and other disciplines as they relate to earthquake engineering by providing opportunities for the publication of the work of applied mathematicians, engineers and other applied scientists involved in solving problems closely related to the field of earthquake engineering and geotechnical earthquake engineering. Emphasis is placed on new concepts and techniques, but case histories will also be published if they enhance the presentation and understanding of new technical concepts. Fields Covered * Seismology and geology relevant to earthquake engineering problems with emphasis on modeling and methodologies rather than case studies. * Wave propagation, wave scattering and dynamic crack propagation in soils and rocks under elastic or inelastic material behavior. * Dynamic constitutive behavior of materials. * Dynamic interaction problems (soil-structure interaction, fluid-structure interaction, tsunamis). * Seismic analysis and design of steel and reinforced concrete structures, retaining walls, dams, slopes. * Effect of moving loads on bridges and pavements and vibration isolation in geotechnical structures. * Inverse problems, identification and structural health monitoring in earthquake engineering. * Instrumentation and experimental methods in earthquake engineering. * Applied mathematical methods for earthquake engineering analysis and design. * Numerical methods (mainly finite elements and boundary elements) for linear and non-linear earthquake analysis and design. * Performance-based seismic design of structures. * Probabilistic methods in earthquake engineering including risk analysis and reliability. * Earthquake case histories and lessons learned from catastrophic ground motions.