Dynamic analysis of rigid surface footings by boundary element method

Abstract

An accurate and efficient boundary element procedure is developed for the analysis of dynamic response of rigid surface footings. The footings are assumed to be resting on an elastic half-space. The problem is formulated in the frequency domain by adopting the half-space Green's function for surface points loads. Therefore, only discretization is required for the soil-footing interface. Two types of element, linear and quadratic isoparametric elements, are employed for the discretization. Examples of the single-footing as well as two-footing system are presented to demonstrate the application of the method. The results are compared with other published results. It is demonstrated that the present results are in good agreement with the approximate solution proposed by Tajimi at low frequency range. However, the approximate solution may lead to an over-estimation of the amplitude and decaying rate as the frequency increases. © 1998 Academic Press.