Effect of Soil Saturation On Seismic Performance of A Structure: A Numerical Approach

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of soil saturation on the seismic performance of a structure when subjected to earthquake-induced vibration. More specifically, this paper examines the effect of the soil saturation level taking into account of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the structural response. For this purpose, a two dimensional (2D) finite element model was developed with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion under plane-strain conditions using geotechnical finite element code PLAXIS. To emphasize SSI problems in civil engineering applications, mechanical behavior and various saturation levels of the local soil condition is examined using a numerical model. As can seen from the analysis results, the saturation level of soils causes an increase on the lateral roof displacement of the saturated elasto-plastic soil. This situation was interpreted as the increase in the saturation levels of the soils caused a decrease in the rigidity. Furthermore, neglecting the effect of SSI leads to underestimated results of the structural behavior.