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International Journal of
DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

ISSN:2230-9926 International Journal of Development Research

Vol. 5, Issue, 04, pp. 4061-4068, April, 2015

Full Length Research Article

INTEGRATING SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION ALONG BASEMENT WALLS IN STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS PROGRAMS
1,*Désirée Hanna Khoueiry and 2Michel Farid Khouri
1,2
Department of Civil Engineering, Branch II, Lebanese University, Lebanon

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History: Recent field and laboratory studies have shown that the effect of Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI)
Received 15th January, 2015 can be not conservative to a structure if not considered. In evaluating the SSI effect along
Received in revised form basement walls on the seismic response of moment-resisting frame buildings with multiple
17th February, 2015 basements, a parametric study is performed on multiple story buildings resting on flexible
Accepted 21st March, 2015 grounds. The number of basements is varied and UBC suggested site conditions are considered.
Published online 29th April, 2015 Comparing results obtained by Plaxis that considers SSI along basement walls and Robot that
consider it only at foundation level (by mean of springs), one can observe that SSI along
Key words: basement walls greatly affects the seismic performance of buildings subjected to ground
Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI), movements. Results obtained from Plaxis and integrated into the Robot model by means of
Basement Walls, springs along basement walls with specific extracted stiffness values proved the accuracy of the
Seismic Behavior, method. These stiffness values are calculated using force-displacement relationships, and charts
Moment Resisting Frames, that relate stiffness to depth of basements are generated.
Base Shear,
Drift,
Plaxis,
Robot.

Copyright © 2015Désirée Hanna Khoueiry and Michel Farid Khouri. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION According to PS92, when buildings have underground stories,

The assumption of fixing the building at the base used in the code demands the use of a part of the underground height
structural analysis programs, neglects the flexibility of the soil depending on the type of the foundation soil (Règles, 1995).
under foundation and around basements. Even though this As far as Eurocode 8 is concerned, considering the effect of
assumption is a common practice, it has been proved that SSI soil-structure interaction is beneficial for most conventional
could clearly affect the seismic response of the building. building structures since it reduces the bending moments and
Khalil et al. explained that the flexibility of the soil induce an shear forces in various elements of the superstructure
increase in the period of the structure (Khalil et al., (Eurocode, 1998). In brief, the current state-of-practice for
2006).Most building codes treat low and medium rise regular seismic design of buildings with multiple underground stories
buildings with multi-level underground stories with the same involves approximate approaches that primarily differ
recommendations used for buildings with surface foundations. according to the designer’s judgment and experience. This is a
The U.S. seismic regulations (FEMA 450, 2003) suggest a consequence of lack of relevant recommendations in building
simplified procedure to take into account the effect of SSI. codes. However, it is important to incorporate the underground
These procedures that are based on traditional expressions of stories, basement walls, foundation soil and side soil explicitly
SSI, assumes that the ground has a linear-elastic behavior. in the mathematical model of the structure to be able to assess
Other, the seismic code ATC-3-06 offers a simple formula for the actual effect of the seismic load on the building.
estimating the fundamental period and damping coefficient of Foundation engineers generally use Geotechnical programs
a structure. such as Plaxis (Plaxis, Version 8)that take into consideration
SSI, while structural engineers use programs such as Robot,
(Autodesk, 2013)that do not involve SSI along basement walls
*Corresponding author:Désirée Hanna Khoueiry, in the dynamic analysis of structures. The objectives of this
Department of Civil Engineering, Branch II, Lebanese University, work is to evaluate the effects of SSI along basement walls on
Lebanon. the seismic behavior of structures by comparing the two
4062 Désirée Hanna Khoueiry and Michel Farid Khouri, Integrating soil-structure interaction along basement walls in structural analysis programs

programs and to find a procedure to integrate these effects • Soil Class D, corresponding to a stiff soil profile,
obtained from Plaxis into structure analysis programs, such as • Soil Class E, corresponding to a soft soil profile.
Robot. This study will be limited to the effect of soil-structure
interaction on the top displacement of the building and its Preliminary analysis of the buildings
fundamental frequency, noting that the soil-structure
interaction is not limited to variations in the fundamental The five, ten, fifteen and twenty story buildings were modeled
period of the structure, but has also lots of different effects. using the structural analysis program ROBOT assuming fixed
base condition. In order to simplify the comparison between
Description of the building models models, column sections were not changed since the objective
of this study is the seismic behavior of the building rather than
The parametric study involves the investigation of seismic its seismic design. Seismic loads are calculated using the code
behavior of buildings with 5, 10, 15 and 20 stories with 3, 5 UBC97 (Uniform Building Code, 1997). On the other hand,
and 7 basements. The models adopted herein are reinforced the superstructure is considered to remain in the elastic range
concrete moment resisting frames of 5m spans. Each story during the seismic excitation (Khouri, 2009; Khouri, 2011).
height is 3m, the thickness of the floor was taken equal to The basement walls must resist the lateral earth pressure, the
0.25m according to the rules of the ACI 318M-08 (American, bending moment and shear. Table 4 provides the stiffness of
2008).The slabs were considered rigidly connected to the columns and basement walls obtained.
columns and the buildings were assumed to rest on a mat type
foundation. The gravity loads assigned to the buildings were Buildings considered in this study involve different vertical
the dead loads consisting of the own weight of structural loads on foundations in addition to several types of soils; this
components, in addition to the load due to non-structural wide range of variable parameters results in different
elements and the live load. These loads are presented in the thicknesses for the mat foundation. In order to reduce the
Table 1. complications of the comparison process between various
Table 1. Gravity loads acting on the buildings models, the same raft thickness was used for all buildings with
the same soil class type. Consequently, the bearing capacity
Unit weight of the concrete 25 KN/m3 safety factor is higher for buildings with 5 floors and decreases
Nonstructural components 5 KN/m2 by increasing the number of floors. For soil class C, a raft of
Live load 2.5 KN/m3 1.5m was used; also for soil class D, a raft of 1.5m was used,
however the study was carried out only for 5, 10 and 15 floors
The concrete used for structural elements has a compressive and not for 20 floors; this is because the bearing capacity of
strength f'c = 25 MPa, an elastic modulus E = 32000 MPa, a the soil cannot support the loads of the 20 floors. On the other
shear modulus G = 13300 MPa and a Poisson's ratio equal to hand, the raft thickness used for soil class E was2m and
0.2.The buildings site has a 35-m-thick deposit of buildings with 5 and 10 floors were only considered for this
homogeneous soil underlain by the bedrock. type of soil.
Table 2. Soil properties

γunsat[kN/m3] γsat[kN/m3] E [kN/m2] υ (nu) C [kN/m2] φ [°] ψ [°] Vs(m/s)

SC 18 20 7.64 e+05 0.3 1 33 7 400
SD 18 19 2.057e+05 0.3 1e-3 30 20 200
SE 16 18 4.224e+04 0.3 2 24 0 100

Table 3. Parametric study

Nb. Of Floors 20 15 10 5
Nb. Of Basements 3 5 7
Soil Type SC SD SE

Table 4. Rigidities of columns and basement walls for various stories considered.

5 Stories 10 Stories 15 Stories 20 Stories

Normal Rigidity [kN/ml] 8.000 e +06 8.000 e +06 9.600E+06 1.120E+07
Flexural Rigidity [kN.m2/ml] 4.167 e+04 4.167 e+04 7.200E+04 1.143E+05

The information of this layer are used to calculate the Table 5. Ultimate bearing capacity for the soil types and
foundation’s properties and the static pressure on basement basements considered
walls according to ACI 318M-08. No groundwater is
considered; also the deformation modulus E and the shear Ca [kg/cm2) 3 basements 5 basements 7 basements
modulus G of the soil are the dynamic modulus used for small Soil SC 4.8 5.8 6.9
Soil SD 2.8 3.7 4.8
deformation (FASCICULE, 2012; Bourgeois, 1997). Soil SE 1.9 2.6 3.6

Three soil types considered for the parametric study similar to Even though the bearing capacity is important in the analysis
those presented inUBC97 (Uniform Building Code, 1997): of any structure, the effect of varying it was not significant for
• Soil Class C, corresponding to a very dense soil to soft our study because we are mostly involved with the basement
rock,
4063 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 05, Issue, 04, pp. 4061-4068, April, 2015

walls subjected to lateral loads. Table 5 shows the ultimate The difference between Robot Model and Plaxis Model will
bearing capacity of each soil type for each excavation depth. only be the SSI along basement walls. The stiffness
coefficients of the springs are determined from the expressions
PLAXIS modeling of Newmark and Resenblueth for rectangular foundations
(Newmark, 1971).
Literature has shown that PLAXIS software has proven its
efficiency in many engineering cases for modeling SSI. Many
Kh = 2(1+υ).G.βx√ .
articles address how Plaxis can efficiently be applied as a tool
in seismic SSI problems (Besseling and Lengkeek, 2012). The Kv= v√ .
Plaxis bulletin in many issues contains descriptions of
practical projects in which Plaxis has been used for modeling With:
SSI (Plaxis Bulletin, 2006). Plaxis performs analysis in plane
strain and allows introducing the whole soil-structure system; L/B = 1 and (βx =1, βv = 2.16),
this system is subjected to seismic excitation at the L/B = 2 and (βx =0.94, βv = 2.2),
impermeable bedrock level. The linear elastic elements in L/B = 4and (βx =1, βv = 2.4),
PLAXIS, are represented by their normal inertia EA and
bending inertia EI as “plate” elements. The load includes self- Where L and B are the length and width of the foundation,
weight, superimposed dead load plus25% of the live load, and taken in this case equal to 1considering the rigidities per
physical damping in the building and the ground is simulated square meter of the floor. Table 6 gives the values of the
by Rayleigh formula. In addition, Mohr-Coulomb was used to spring stiffness for both directions depending on the shear
model the soil and the presence of groundwater is neglected. wave velocities associated with the three types of soils studied.
The seismic loading at the base of the building will be the
The seismic loading was applied as a time history amplified accelerogram obtained from a site response analysis
corresponding to a maximum seismic acceleration of 0.2g. carried out within PLAXIS at the foundation level. The time-
This time history was obtained from recordings on a bedrock displacement curve at the top of the building will be compared
site made in Turkey and presented in Figure 1. The vertical to that obtained from PLAXIS in addition to the natural
limits are taken far from the building and considered as frequency. Consequently, the influence of the SSI along
absorbent boundaries; they absorb the seismic waves and basement walls will be the difference between the two models.
prevent their reflections in the ground, see Figure 2.The
seismic excitation time was taken to be 10s for all models, and Table 6.Properties of each soil type
the time-displacement at the top of the building and the
fundamental period obtained from PLAXIS are to be Soil type SC SD SE
compared to the Robot Model. Shear wave velocity Vs [m/s] 400 200 100
Density ρ [kN/m3] 18 18 16
Poisson's ratio υ 0.3 0.4 0.3
Kh [T/m] 76440 20572 4246
Kv [T/m] 90720 26450 5039

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Numerical simulations using Plaxis and Robot were made by
varying the parameters of the structure and the soil (see
section 2). For each combination of parameters, time-
displacement curve at the top of the building was obtained;
this allowed exposing the influence of SSI along basement
Figure 1. Time history used with maximum acceleration of 0.2g walls on the behavior of the structure.
ROBOT modeling Case Study
ROBOT was used to model the structure that was assumed to For a soil type SC, twenty stories with 7 basements, the two
be supported on elastic springs to consider flexible time-displacement curves obtained from both model (Plaxis
foundations as shown in Figure 3; Kh is the horizontal stiffness and Robot) are presented in Figure 4. Note that the periods of
and Kv is the vertical stiffness. the 2 curves are approximately the same, but the displacement
at the top of the building is a little bit larger in Plaxis than in
Robot. This shows that not considering SSI along basement
walls in Robot can be harmful to the building as it increases
the displacement at the top of the building without changes in
the fundamental frequency. On average, the ratio of frequency
variation between the two models is Fplaxis/Frobot = 1.09, while
the ratio of the maximum displacement variation is
Δplaxis/Δrobot=0.5.
Figure 2. Boundary conditions for the basic model in Plaxis
(5 floors, 3 basements)
4064 Désirée Hanna Khoueiry and Michel Farid Khouri, Integrating soil-structure interaction along basement walls in structural analysis programs

on the natural frequency of the building with its influence on

the displacement at the top. The relationship between
frequency and displacement ratios can be summarized as
follows:

• If SSI causes an increase in frequency ratio (Fplaxis/Frobot>

1) with an increase in displacementratio (Δplaxis/Δrobot> 1),
it would be the worstcase where the SSI is harmful to the
building if not considered in the model.
• If SSI causes (Fplaxis/Frobot> 1) with (Δplaxis/Δrobot< 1), this
means that the behavior of the structure has been modified,
and the structure tends to behave as a rigid structure which
Figure 3. Robot model for 5 floors, 3 basements absorbs greater forces as it moves less.
• If SSI causes (Fplaxis/Frobot< 1) with (Δplaxis/Δrobot> 1), the
SSI can be beneficialand the structure tends to behave as a
flexible structure which receives less forces but the top
displacement should be checked to remain within code
limits.
• Finally, if SSI causes (Fplaxis/Frobot< 1) with (Δplaxis/Δrobot<
1), then SSI tends to be beneficial since it reduces the
bending moments and shear forces in the superstructure
thereby reducing the displacement of the building.
In the charts of Figures 5 and 6, it can be noticed that the cases
where the SSI leads to (Fplaxis/Frobot>1 with (Δplaxis/Δrobot> 1) are
Figure 4. Time-displacement curves. (SC - 20 Stories - 7
for buildings with high number of floors and basements and
basements) for soil type SE. For soil type SC and high number of floors,
SSI has a slight influence. It is because of the ratio between
the height of the superstructure divided the height of the
The same curves were generated for each case study, and the
basement is reduced which produce less lateral effects of the
ratio of the frequencies from Plaxis over that obtained from
soil in this configuration. The same can be observed for SD
robot are presented in the chart of Figure 5. Similarly, the ratio
soil type. In addition, from the charts, it can be observed that
of the displacements at the top of the building determined by
by decreasing the number of basements, the influence of SSI
Plaxis over that by Robot are presented in the chart of Figure
decreases for all soil types and for a small number of floors the
6.
structure is relatively rigid as it receives more forces and
moves less. Consequently, it is important to incorporate the
basement walls and side soil explicitly in the mathematical
model of the structure in order to be able to assess the seismic
effect on the underground part of the building and hence
determine the actual forces acting on various structure
elements. The question that arises at this stage is how to
incorporate SSI into the Robot model. Following is the
modeling method of the SSI by side springs with charts to
calculate the lateral stiffness K of these springs. Structural
engineers and designers can use these charts for proper
Figure 5. Chart for the frequency ratio for all soil types modeling and evaluation of structures.
Method for modeling the SSI effects by lateral elastic
springs
The preceding observations clearly show that the SSI along
basement walls affect the behavior of the structure, and can
sometimes be harmful if not considered especially for soft
grounds. The question that arises is how we can integrate this
effect into any structural analysis programs. Using lateral
springs along the basement walls to model the soil behavior,
the soil exerts compression on these walls but no tension;
therefore, these springs must have zero stiffness in tension.
Figure 6. Chart for the displacement ratio for all soil types
Consequently, the springs are placed on one side of the
Influence of SSI building as in Figure 7. In this way, when the springs are
compressed, they represent the resistance of the soil on one
To evaluate the influence of SSI along basement walls on the side of the building and when the springs are stretched, they
behavior of the structure, one needs to compare its influence represent the compression of the soil on the other side.
4065 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 05, Issue, 04, pp. 4061-4068,
4068, April, 2015

Including these springs in the Robot structural model

incorporates
porates the soil effect on the basement walls obtained by
the Plaxis model.
Stiffness Calculations
Using Plaxis model for the building with 20 floors and7
basements for a soil type SC, the shear curve on the walls of
the 7 basements are obtained as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 9: Static and Dynamic Earth p pressure on basement walls

for (20 floors, 7 basements, Soil SC)

Figure 10. Rigidity of the side springs for 20 Stories, 7 basements,

and soil SC

Figure 7. Modeling the SSI by lateral springs

Figure 11. Comparison of the top displacements obtained by

Plaxis, Robot and Robot with Lateral Springs for 20 stories,
Figure 8. Shear along basement walls obtained from Plaxis for 20 7basements and soil SC
floors, 7basements and soil SC
Introducing the above rigidities into Robot mode land
The derivative of each derivable part of the curve gives the comparing in Figure 11, the displacement curves obtained at
load on the basement walls; this is dynamic earth pressure on the top of the structure for Plaxis, Robot and Robot with
the wall. The derivative is done by increments, according to lateral springs, it is clearly seen that the behavior of the
the following formula: f’ = , where ∆V is the difference in structure (i.e. Robot model with side springs) converged to the
results obtained by Plaxis. Also, Figure 12 shows the same
shear values between two consecutive points, and ∆z =
graphs done for the case of 10 stories, 7 basements and soil
difference in depth between two consecutive points. The
SC. The same calculations were conducted for al all models and
reactions of the slabs on the walls are calculated from the
parametric variations. Rigidities obtained are presented in
difference in shear force at each slab. These results can be
Tables 7,8 and 9:
compared to the static earth pressure (P P = ρ.g.h.K0) and are
presented in Figure 9. Results show that the additional
Rigidity graphs
dynamic earth pressure is maximum at the surface of the
ground and decreases until it becomes zero at foundations as
From the stiffness results, an average equivalent rigidity was
expected. This clearly explainss the graph obtained. The total
calculated for each soil type and number of basements. The
earth pressure is greater than the static earth pressure at the
values are shown in the graphs of Figures 13,14and 15. Each
surface of the ground and increases with depth, approaching
point of these charts is the average rigidity of several models
the static earth pressure. Considering slab reactions as forces
of computation from Tables 7, 8 and 9. 9.Note that for 7
on the soil from PLAXIS, the equivalent ent soil stiffness is
basements results are clear and consistent, since the soil soil-
deduced according to F=K.U, where K is the stiffness of the
structure influence becomes more determined
determined.
side springs. For the case under consideration which is (20
stories, 7 basements, SoilSc), rigidities obtained are shown in
Figure 10.
4066 Désirée Hanna Khoueiry and Michel Farid Khouri, Integrating soil-structure
soil structure interaction along basement walls in structural analysis programs

Table7 Equivalent stiffness for soil type SC [T / ml]

Table7.

Table8 Equivalent stiffness for soil type SD [T/ml]

Table8.

Table 9. Equivalent stiffness for soil type SE [T/ml]

Figure 12. Comparison of the top displacements obtained by

Figure 14. Side Springs Rigidities for 3basements
Plaxis, Robot and Robot with lateral springsfor10 stories,
7basements and soil SC
4067 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 05, Issue, 04, pp. 4061-4068, April, 2015

determine the values of K and graphs were generated as a

function of the basement depths.
• These K graphs allow structural analysts to use in their
programs (any structural analysis program) to incorporate
the SSI generated by the basement surrounding soils.

The findings can be summarized as follows:

• Results indicate that SSI can considerably affect the

seismic response of buildings.
• It was found that the SSI effect was most critical for
buildings with high number of floors and basements
surrounded by soil type SE. For soils SD and SC, the SSI
can change the behavior of the structure and the load path
Figure15. Side Springs Rigidities for 5 basements in structural elements especially for low and medium rise
buildings.
• Making use of these stiffness values can make the
structural analysis more accurate and close to the actual
behavior of structures.
• This method allows the evaluation of the dynamic behavior
of the structure, but gives no results regarding the behavior
of the basement walls.
• More research need to be done to validate this work with
3D studies in order to obtain a complete modeling method
that can be recommended and used not only in various
structural analysis programs but also in different seismic
codes.

Figure 16. Side Springs Rigidities for 7basements Finally, this paper presents an analysis technique that allows
the proper evaluation of structures with multiple basements
Conclusions situated in seismic zones. Analysis and designers that use
structural analysis programs such as Robot can utilize the
In this study, the impact of the soil-structure interaction along outcome of this work to incorporate the SSI into their designs.
basement walls on the dynamic behavior of the structure was
investigated. The seismic behavior of buildings with multiple Acknowledgements
stories and underground stories examined and three soil types
considered for the parametric study similar to those presented The authors thanks Optimal Engineering Consulting and
in UBC97. The work steps that were done can be presented as Contracting for sponsoring the major part of this work and
follows: special thanks to the Lebanese University, Faculty of
Engineering, Branch II and École Doctoral des Sciences et de
• A model was generated by Robot taking into consideration Technologie for sponsoring part of this on-going research.
that the foundation was sitting on flexible soil.
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