Influence of the Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction in Concrete Frames With Incorporated Viscous Dampers

Abstract

Essential facilities, such as hospitals, communication systems, highways, bridges, among others, play a significant role in a community. These facilities are vital, especially after being hit by a natural hazard. They must remain functional after a significant event to provide essential services to the community. The implementation of control systems during the structural design and rehabilitation stages enables an attractive manner for this type of structure to dissipate the dynamic response under major disturbance events. Typically, the design stage of structural control systems focuses its attention on the asset's structural configuration. Under seismic events, the structure's response can be altered by the interaction between the structure and the soil underneath. In this paper, the dynamic response's influence is evaluated through numerical simulation by including the effects of soil-structure interaction in a concrete moment resistant frame with viscous fluid-type energy dissipation systems. For this analysis, seven ground motion records were selected for the analysis, considering their frequency and source of content. These records are matched to the corresponding building code design response spectrum for areas prone to high seismicity. Similarly, the soil profiles used for the analysis correlates with the same seismic hazard zone. The analyzed structure corresponds to an essential facility of high importance modeled as a two-dimensional concrete moment resistant frame. The analysis is performed on a seven-story building implementing viscous dampers. Two cases are studied: implementing and neglecting the effects of the soil-structure interaction. The results for the case-study show a significant increase in the dynamic response in terms of displacement, interstory drift, and base shear when considering soil-structure interaction.