NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Case Study of Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction.
- File
- PB295112.pdf
- Author(s)
- Whitman, R. V.; Protonotarios, J. N.; Nelson, M. F.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Applied Science and Research Applications., October 1972, 27 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- ['T72-2', 'STRUCTURES PUB-350']
- Abstract
- Following the close of the World's Fair in New York, dynamic shaking tests were made on several buildings. The results for the Chimes Tower at the Belgian Pavillion were particularly interesting. The data revealed a small but definite amount of foundation rocking whose effect was not analyzed in the original study reported by Nielsen and Wiss. The present paper discusses the reported findings of Nielsen and Wiss and the results of this later case study of soil-structure interaction at the Chimes Tower. A rocking spring constant was determined directly from measurements of foundation movement. Using this rocking spring constant in a dynamic model for the structure improved the agreement between predicted and observed resonant frequencies. When a horizontal spring was also introduced, having a constant consistent with direct measurements of foundation movement, the dynamic model for the structure introduced a new mode that was not observed. Therefore, the damping associated with the horizontal spring must have been large enough to suppress the additional mode. Thus, in an indirect way, the test results for the Chimes Tower confirm that large damping is associated with horizontal translation interaction. The exact value of this damping cannot be deduced from the test data. It can only be concluded that the damping was quite large in general agreement with the theory for foundation interaction.
- Keywords
- Tall buildings; Damping; Field tests; Dynamic response; Buildings; Earthquake engineering; Resonant frequency; Soil dynamics; Soil structure interactions; Foundations; Earthquakes; Dynamic structural analysis