Antiplane response of a dike with flexible soil-structure interface to incident SH waves

Studies of the effects of differential ground motions on structural response generally do not consider the effects of the soil-structure interaction. On the other end, studies of soil-structure interaction commonly assume that the foundation of the structure (surface or embedded) is rigid. The former ignore the scattering of waves from the foundation and radiation of energy from the structure back to the soil, while the latter ignore quasi-static forces in the foundations and lower part of the structure deforming due to the wave passage. This paper studies a simple model of a dike but considers both the soil-structure interaction and the flexibility of the foundation. The structure is represented by a wedge resting on a half-space and excited by incident plane SH-waves. The structural ‘foundation’ is a flexible surface that can deform during the passage of seismic waves. The wave function expansion method is used to solve for the motions in the half-pace and in the structure. The displacements and stresses in the structure are compared with those for a fixed-base model shaken by the free-field motion. The results show large displacements near the base of the structure due to the differential motion of the base caused by the wave passage.