Influence of soil model complexity on the seismic response of shallow foundations

The time-history finite element analysis is usually used to evaluate the seismic response of shallow foundations. However, the literature lacks studies on the influence of the soil constitutive model complexity on the seismic response of shallow foundations. This study, thus, aims to fill this gap by investigating the seismic response of shallow foundation resting on dry silica sand using the linear elastic (LE) model, elastic-perfectly-plastic (EPP) model, and hardening soil with small strain stiffness (HS small) model. These models have been used because it is intended to compare the results of a soil constitutive model that accurately captures the seismic response of the soil-structure interaction problems (which is the HS small model) with simpler models (the LE and EPP models) that are routinely used by practitioners in geotechnical designs. The results showed that the LE model produces a very small seismic settlement value which is approximately equal to zero. The EPP model predicts a seismic settlement higher than that produced using the HS small model for earthquakes with a peak ground acceleration (PGA) lower than 0.25 g for a relative density of 45% and 0.40 g for a relative density of 70%. However, the HS small model predicts a seismic settlement higher than the EPP model beyond the aforementioned PGA values with the difference between both models increases as the PGA rises. The results also showed that the LE and EPP models predict similar trend and magnitude of the acceleration-time relationship directly below the foundation, which was different than that predicted using the HS small model. The results reported in this paper provide a useful benchmark for future numerical studies on the response of shallow foundations subjected to seismic shake.