Seismic response due to travelling shear wave including soil-structure interaction with base-mat uplift

The seismic response due to a travelling shear wave is investigated. The resulting input consists of a translational-and a torsional-acceleration time history, which depend on the ratio of the wavelength to the dimension of the footing. A nuclear reactor building is used for illustration. The combined result of the translational and torsional elastic response (the latter arises even in an axisymmetric structure) will not, in general, be larger than that encountered in the case of a spatially uniform earthquake. If the footing slips or becomes partially separated from the soil, a non-linear dynamic analysis has to be performed to determine the response. Substantial motions in all three directions will take place. The peak structural responses and the floor-response spectra are found to be highly non-linear for high acceleration input values.