Soil and structure uncertainty effects on the Soil Foundation Structure dynamic response

The underlying goal of the present paper is to investigate soil and structural uncertainties on impedance functions and structural response of soil-shallow foundation-structure (SSFS) system using Monte Carlo simulations. The impedance functions of a rigid massless circular foundation resting on the surface of a random soil layer underlain by a homogeneous half-space are obtained using 1-D wave propagation in cones with reflection and refraction occurring at the layer-basement interface and free surface. Firstly, two distribution functions (lognormal and gamma) were used to generate random numbers of soil parameters (layer´s thickness and shear wave velocity) for both horizontal and rocking modes of vibration with coefficients of variation ranging between 5 and 20%, for each distribution and each parameter. Secondly, the influence of uncertainties of soil parameters (layer´s thickness, and shear wave velocity), as well as structural parameters (height of the superstructure, and radius of the foundation) on the response of the coupled system using lognormal distribution was investigated. This study illustrated that uncertainties on soil and structure properties, especially shear wave velocity and thickness of the layer, height of the structure and the foundation radius significantly affect the impedance functions, and in same time the response of the coupled system.