Effect of slab flexibility on interaction between two circular foundations

Abstract

The paper is aimed at investigating the effect of foundation rigidity on dynamic stiffness for two circular foundations on a viscoelastic medium. To generate the dynamic stiffness, a substructure technique is employed. For the substructure of a viscoelastic medium, the solution for wave motion reported in Reference 11 is used. For the substructures of two flexible foundations, classical plate theory with the inertial force neglected is employed to find the displacement fields of the foundation plates subjected to the interaction stresses. Then, the continuity condition for all the substructures is imposed implicitly by using the variational principle; then with the help of the reciprocal theorem the dynamic stiffness for the two flexible foundations can be obtained. For the numerical study, the boundary condition at the rims of both foundation plates is assumed to be a hinge connection to superstructures. Some numerical investigations are performed and the effect of foundation rigidity on dynamic stiffness is examined. Some discussions and conclusions are also made.