Applied Mathematics and Computation 173 (2006) 636667

www.elsevier.com/locate/amc

The evaluation of impedance functions in the

analysis of foundations vibrations using
boundary element method
E. C
elebi

a,*

_ C
, S. Frat b, I.
ankaya

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Sakarya University,

54187 Esentepe-Sakarya, Turkey
b
Faculty of Technical Education, Department of Construction, Sakarya University,
54187 Esentepe-Sakarya, Turkey
Faculty of Technical Education, Department of Electronics and Computer, Sakarya University
54187, Esentepe-Sakarya, Turkey

Abstract
The basic step in the substructure approach based on discretization of the soil medium for the soilstructure interaction problems is to determine the impedance functions
which are dened as the complex dynamic-stiness coecients of the soil-footing system
are used in the analysis of foundations vibrations. In this study, the discrete values of
impedance functions over wide ranges of frequency-factors are presented for both surface-supported and embedded foundations. The numerical results are obtained by using
the substructure approach in the frequency domain which is formulated on basis of the
Boundary Element Method derived from the fundamental solution for a homogeneous,
isotropic and linear-elastic continuum. To further demonstrate in practical applications
and to show the solutions of this type of problems to civil engineers, a comprehensive
parametric analysis and systematic calculations are performed with various controlling
parameters to evaluate the dynamic response of the vibrating soilfoundation system. In

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ecelebi@sakarya.edu.tr (E. C
elebi).

0096-3003/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.amc.2005.04.006

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

637

addition, the solutions for normalized stiness and damping coecients of foundations
in almost all cases of vibration modes are in very good agreement with the published
results based on the analytical methods. The obtained numerical results should enable
practicing engineers to take into account the linear soilstructure interaction problems
over wide ranges of frequency factors.

2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Soilstructure interaction; Boundary element method; Three-dimensional frequency
domain analysis; Substructuring approach; Embedded foundations; Dynamic excitations

1. Introduction
The propagation of the waves through the soil medium generated by earthquake ground motion or human made vibrations such as machine foundations,
trac loads or construction blasting may produce excessive ground vibrations
which have recently received special attention in the world wide scope, because
people are more aware of their life quality, comfort and safety. The increasing
both passenger transport and running speed, and the weight of the wave
source, such as high speed trains with heavy-axle double-deck wagons, heavyloaded freight tracs or giant lorries would likely produce reasonably strong
ground and structural vibrations. The elastic response of engineering constructions under dynamic loads as earthdams or nuclear power installations which
present a risk for population and environment is inuenced by deformability of
the foundation medium, especially in case of very soft ground conditions.
Therefore the xed base structures assumption represents a large approximation to the real conditions. It is widely recognized that the dynamic response
of a structure supported on soft soil may be dierent from the response of similarly excited, identical supported on rm ground. The eects of soilfoundation
interaction on the dynamic response of building systems have been main theme
of numerous investigations and recognized as an important task in the dynamic
analysis in recent years. Interest in this subject originates from the eld of structural and geotechnical engineering in association to design of the engineering
structures.
During the last decade, with development by the appearance of high performance computers, various proposed approaches with dierent accuracy which
have to be classied as either numerical methods, analytical methods or (semi-)
empirical methods and their coupling procedures for modeling of unbounded
media have been carried out to investigate the dynamic response of vibrating
foundations founded on deformable soil region. Wolf [1] proposed recently a
new extensively detailed approach by using a cone model to develop formulations of impedance functions of massless rigid foundations.

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Nomenclature
a0
B
cs
cp
ca

dimensionless circular frequency

half-width in the y-direction (rectangular foundation)
shear wave velocity
dilatational wave velocity
dimensionless damping coecient corresponding to the vibration
mode a
D
embedment depth of foundation
e
E
complex Youngs modulus
FN
discrete Fourier Transform
f
dynamic compliance matrix
fi
body force components dened per unit volume
G
shear modulus of soil
K
complex frequency-dependent dynamic stiness matrix
Ks1j
static stiness for the half-space for the vibration mode a
Ka
impedance function for the vibration mode a
ka
dimensionless spring coecient corresponding to the vibration
mode a
L
half-length in the x-direction (rectangular foundation)
a = x, y, z translational vibration mode in the x-, y-, z-directions
a = mx, my, mz rotational vibration mode about x-, y-, z-axis
P
vector of interaction forces at basement nodes
r
radius of foundation
uox, uoy, uoz displacement components in the directions of x, y and z
u
displacement vector of the geometric center of the base of the
footing
a
index of mode
b
damping ratio
ui
components of constant interpolation function
dij
Kronecker delta
q
mass density
m
Poissons ratio of soil medium
ekk
kinematical compatibility
l, k
Lame constants
x
circular frequency of excitation
rij
component of stress tensor
X
elastic domain
cox, coy, coz rotations about the x-, y- and z axes
f~ k
complex force amplitudes
~t
matrix of complex frequency dependent tractions

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

639

~ti x; x frequency dependent traction boundary conditions
~t
ik x; n; x full-space fundamental solutions for the traction components
~u
matrix of complex frequency dependent displacements
~uk
complex displacement amplitudes


~
ui x; x frequency dependent displacement boundary conditions
~
u
ik x; n; x full-space fundamental solutions for displacement components
C1, C2 boundaries of elastic domain

Numerical models using the nite and boundary element method (BEM) are
under development for the analysis of wave propagation problems in solids
with emphasis on dynamic soilstructure interaction (SSI) due to dynamic excitations [24]. However, the relatively complicated formulation and intensive
computation to obtain the exact solution for this problem restrict its common
application to traditional engineering practice up to now.
BEM in elastodynamics is appropriate and eective numerical tool to study
such interaction eects. In this approach the energy radiation condition towards innity is correctly taken into account by the integral equations and
the space discretization is reduced to only the boundary of the adjacent medias. The most important contributions were published by Dominguez and
Roesset [5] based on the frequency domain BEM to compute the impedance
functions for surface supported rectangular foundations. Also, Veletsos and
Wei [6] and Luco and Westman [7] solved exactly the mixed boundary value
problem of a rigid disk resting on elastic half-space for vertical, sliding, rocking
and torsional harmonic motions. Apsel and Luco [8] obtained dynamic Greens
functions for a layered half-space.
Gazetas and Tassouslas [9,10] investigated the dynamic response of arbitrarily shaped rigid foundations embedded in a uniform half-space for low frequency ranges. Integral solution techniques assuming welded contact condition
for circular foundations embedded in an incompressible soil have also been
presented by Apsel and Luco [8] and Mita and Luco [11]. Most of numerical
results for surface and embedded rigid basemat published to date are presented
for low to moderate frequencies (0 6 ao 6 4) and are restricted for certain values of Poissons ratio (0.25 6 m 6 0.45) and for certain types of foundation
geometry due to the cost of computation, practical assumptions and limitations
of rigorous analysis techniques.
By using special fundamental solutions for m = 0.5, Bu [12], Bu and Lin [13]
proposed rigorous boundary element solutions for impedance functions of
square foundations (2-D model) embedded in a perfectly incompressible
half-space at high frequency ranges. They described new theoretical methods
of calculation and improved available numerical procedures. In the most of

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

these contributions the authors illustrated their methods with the help of one
example and/or compared with results previously published references. At this
point, numerical results or empirical relations, which are derived from the systematic parametric calculations, indicate decreasing tendency. Consequently,
the engineer has only the results for few cases in order to assess dynamic SSI
for practical purposes.
In this study, the numerical results are obtained by using the substructure
approach in the frequency domain which is formulated on basis of the BEM
based on the fundamental solution for a homogeneous, isotropic, linear-elastic
continuum. To further demonstrate in practical applications and to show the
solutions of this type of problems to civil engineers, a comprehensive parametric analysis and systematic calculations are performed with various controlling
parameters to evaluate the dynamic response of the vibrating soilfoundation
system.

2. General denition of the impedance functions for rigid foundations

The properties of the dynamic reciprocal-interaction between foundation of
superstructure and the supporting soil can be investigated using either a steadystate analysis in the frequency domain or a direct time domain substructure approach. In the frequency domain analysis research concern is focused mainly
on the revelation of soil impedances and the interpretation of the frequencydependent nature of SSI problems. The evaluation of the impedance-compliance functions which are dened as the complex dynamic stiness-exibility
coecients at the interface points of the soilfoundation system plays a significant role in the analysis of SSI problems. By using the substructure method the
system has been divided into two substructures. The governing equations,
describing the dynamic response of the nite superstructure or its foundation
and the unbounded soil, can be analyzed independently with respect to the degree of freedom at the common interface nodes. By supplying equilibrium and
compatibility conditions at all interaction points the complete structure is reassembled and a solution for the whole system can be realized. The eect of the
unbounded soil on the behavior of the structure is represented by a boundary
condition joined at those degrees of freedom associated with the nodes at the
interface between the two substructures. In the present paper this boundary
condition is of the form of a displacementforce relationship computed by
using fundamental solution for a homogeneous half-space.
The substructure technique allows a coupling of the basemat of superstructure and the underlying soil at the common interaction nodes. The impedance
matrix of the soil is dened by the dynamic stiness matrix of nodes on the
interface between foundation and soil. As shown in Fig. 1, the rectangular
foundation (of dimension 2B along the x direction) is assumed to be a massless

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

641

rigid block of negligible thickness partially embedded on the soil under harmonic excitation represented by a homogeneous elastic half-space. The soil
properties can be dened by the mass density, q, Poissons ratio, m, and the
shear modulus of elasticity, G. Due to deformability of foundation medium,
the motion of the foundation basement may be described by the six displacement degrees of freedom, namely, two horizontal translations (uox, uoy) and vertical translation (uoz) of the footing, two rocking rotations (cox, coy) and the
torsional rotation (coz) of the footing with respect to the center of the lower
soilstructure interface at point (O).
In this representation, the equivalent springs account for the exibility of the
soil, whereas the equivalent dashpots account for the eect of energy dissipation by radiation due to innity of the soil region. Since the foundation stiness
and damping are dependent on the frequency of excitation, it is most convenient to relate the interaction shear forces Pe ox ; Pe oy and the vertical force
e ox ; M
e oy and the torsional moment
Pe oz , interaction overturning moments M
e
M oz to the resulting foundation translations and rotations in the Fouriertransformed frequency domain.
The dynamic forcedisplacement relationship for the foundation can be
expressed as follow:
9
8
3
e ox > 2 Kxx x
P
>
0
0
0
Kx;my x
0
>
>
>
>
> 6
> e >
>
>
P oy >
0
Kyy x
0
Ky;mx x
0
0 7
>
>
7
6
>
>
>
>
7
6
< P
e oz = 6
0
0
Kzz x
0
0
0 7
7
6
6
7
f
>
>
0
K
0
K
0
0
M
mx;y x
mx x
>
>
7
6
ox
>
>
> 6
>
7
>
>
f
>
>
5
4
K
x
0
0
0
K
x
0
>
my;x
my
>
> M oy >
>
>
;
:
0
0
0
0
0
Kmz x
f
M oz
9
8
~
uox >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
~oy >
>
>u
>
>
>
>
<~
uoz =
.
1a

>
~cox >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
~coy >
>
>
>
>
;
:
~coz
When considered 3-D system, the impedance matrix K of order 6 6 obtained
for a rigid massless foundation is the relation between the applied harmonic
load P and the harmonic response u where designates the displacement vector
of the geometric center of the base of the footing. The diagonal terms of the
matrix are non-zero, and other terms in the matrix which represent the coupling between the degrees of freedom are zero. If the foundationsoil system
has two planes of symmetry, the vertical and torsion motion are also decoupled. Only swaying and rocking are coupled in each plane of symmetry.

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 1. Rigid block model resting on elastic half-space.

For surface foundations the coupling between swaying and rocking may be neglected. Generally, in the case of harmonic vibration the load, the impedance
and the resulting response are complex quantities. This relation can be rewritten in a more general way as
P Ku.

1b

The physical meaning of the dynamic stiness can be easily interpreted from
the dynamic compliance f of the system foundation and subsoil. The compliance function which is also called displacement function transfers the input
(load) to the output (displacement). The dynamic exibility matrix calculated
at the soilfoundation interface is obtained by inverting the impedance matrix
u K 1 P f P.

All impedance functions are given in relation to a dimensionless frequencyfactor dened by

ao

xB
;
cs

where x is the circular frequency of excitation (in rad/s), cs is the propagation

velocity of shear waves in the soil. The radius of a circular foundation or half
the width of a rectangular foundation is assigned by B. With the boundary element solution of this mixed boundary-value problem, the foundation impedances to dynamic loads can be determined by integrating the corresponding
distribution of tractions on the soilfoundation interface. The dynamic stinesses of the system are described to the centre of the basemat and can be
expressed in the following form:
K a x K s1a k a ao iao ca ao 1 2ib

Static stiness may be describe as for each degree of freedom or vibration mode
previously mentioned. The internal damping of soil is also taken into consider-

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

643

ation and is characterized by the damping ratio b. The real parts of the impedance functions signify force components in phase with the displacements and
can be termed as dynamic stiness for the foundation. On the other hand,
the imaginary parts are force components in phase with the velocities and
can be interpreted as energy dissipation by radiation of waves away from the
foundation into the soil. Therefore, they may be termed as foundation damping coecients.
In order to compare the results of analytical approaches, the rectangular
footing is replaced by an equivalent circular footing in which the radius r is obtained by writing that it has respectively the same area for the translation
movements and the same moment of inertia for the rotation movements. Static
stiness is calculated by using the values relating to the circular surface footing.
Dynamic impedances of the foundation can be written as
Horizontal vibration mode (a = xx, yy):
r
8Gr
4BL
K a x
k a iao ca ; r
.
2m
p

5a

Vertical vibration mode (a = zz):

4Gr
K a x
k a iao ca ;
1m

r
4BL
.
r
p

5b

Rocking vibration mode (a = mx, my):

8Gr3a
k a iao ca ;
K a x
31  m

rmx

s
s
3
3
4 16B L
4 16BL
; rmy
.

3p
3p

Torsional vibration mode (a = mz):

s
2
2
4 8BLB L
16Gr3
k a iao ca ; r
.
K a x
3p
3
Coupling terms (a = mx, y; my, x):

5c

5d

r
8Gr2
4BL
;
5e
K a x
k a iao ca ; r
p
2m
p
where i is equal 1, ka is the dimensionless spring coecient and ca is the corresponding damping coecient depending on ao and the Poissons ratio m. For
the terms of the main diagonal of the matrix K, a = xx (translation along x
axis), yy (translation along y axis), zz (translation along z axis); mx (rocking
about x axis), my (rocking about y axis), mz (rocking about z axis). The coupling between swaying and rocking is dened by the indices of a = x,my,
y,mx, mx,y and my,x.

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

3. Theory of wave propagation in elastodynamic and frequency domain BEM

analysis
The BEM is important computational technique solving the boundary integral equations numerically for the modeling of wave propagation problems appear when dealing with the problems concerning innite, semi-innite or very
large domains. The BEM formulation is based on the fundamental solution of
the dierential equation of motion for a homogeneous, isotropic and linearelastic media proposed by Dominguez [14]. The dynamic response for the
points of the linear elastic body, X, bounded by the surface, C, subjected to
the body force components dened per unit volume, fi. Starting from equilibrium considerations, one obtains in components form of the dierential equation of Lame Navier can be derived as;
rij;j fi qui ;

where rij is the component of stress tensor and qui is the force due to inertia.
The commas and overdots indicate partial space and time derivatives of the
displacement components ui(x, t), respectively. As the linear relation between
the components of the stress tensor and the components of the strain tensor
for elastic isotropic solid known as constitutive law of Hook and it leads to
rij kdij ekk 2leij ;

7a

eij 1=2ui;j uj;i ;

7b

where k and l are the Lame constants and dij is the Kronecker delta. The kinematical compatibility which is also called as volume dilatation can be expressed
as follow ekk = e11 + e22 + e33 for k = 1, 2, 3. Replacing (7) into (6) conducts to
the well known equation of the wave motion for the small displacement theory
of linear elastic materials;
uk ;
k lui;ik luk;ii fk q

where a Cartesian coordinate system (i = 1, 2, 3) is used. The propagation

velocities of the dilatational
(or
distortional (or shear) waves
p
pressure)pand
are given by cp k 2l=q and cs l=q for the case of plane strains
as well as for three dimensional problems, and the soil density is dened by
q. In the case of time dependent excitations, the time dependence can be removed by transforming the governing Eq. (8) by means of the transform techniques. Applying a Fast Fourier Transform, the wave equation can be written
in the frequency domain as follow:
qc2p  c2s ~
ui;ik c2s ~
uk;ii  x2 ~
uk  f~ k .

~k and f~ k denote the complex displacement and

Above mentioned equation u
force amplitudes, respectively, of a harmonic motion with circular frequency

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

645

x. When body forces are neglected and homogeneous initial conditions

carry out for all points x of the body X, then the so called Betti-Maxwell reciprocal theorem can be used to nd the boundary integral equation. This law
leads to
Z
Z





~
~
~
cik ui
10
uik ti @C  ~tik ~
ui @C;
C

~
ik x; n; x are the full-space fundamental solutions given

where ~tik x; n; xand u
by Cruse and Rizzo [15] for the traction and displacement components, in the
direction i at point x due to a unit load in direction k at point n. The considered
elastic domain X is surrounded by the boundary C = C1 [ C2. The factors cik
includes the integral free terms, which are dependent on the smoothness in
the vicinity of the source point n. Rectangular Cartesian coordinates is employed. As schematically illustrated by Fig. 2, on the body surface the displace~
ment boundary conditions

ui x; x and the traction boundary conditions


~ti x; x are prescribed, respectively.
The frequency domain formulation allows to incorporate damping by using
e E1 i2b with hysteretic damping coea complex Youngs modulus E
cient b. For the numerical solution of the boundary integral equation, a discretization of the body surface with boundary elements is required. After
discretization
used approximated
solutions for the displacement and traction,
P
P
e
e
ue ki1 ui ui and te ki1 ui ti , the obtained algebraic formulation of this
integral Eq. (10) can be written as follow:
cun

E Z
X
e1



E Z
X
~t
@C ue .
~
u
@C te 

Ce

e1

11a

Ce

The hemispherical surface of the half-space need not be discretized since

eld quantities over this innite boundary are zero (Sommerfeld conditions).
Based on the assumption of welded contact, the boundary conditions are zero
traction on the free surface of the half-space model and the corresponding

Fig. 2. Boundary conditions on elastic body.

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

displacement eld at the soilfoundation contact area. Using this discretization

scheme and parametric representation the boundary integral equation reduces
to the following matrix form;
"
e ~t T~
e u or
U

U11

U12

U21

U22

#"

t1

t2

"

T11

T12

T21

T22

#"

u1

#
;

11b

u2

where ~
u and ~t are the complex frequency dependent displacements and tractions of all nodal points at the boundary. The inuence matrices for each
boundary elements Ce
e
U

E Z
X
e1


~
u
@C

and

Ce

e cij
T

E Z
X
e1


~t
@C ;

12

Ce

where
2

u
11

u
12

u
13

t
11

t
12

t
13

6

~
u
6
4 u21

u
22

6
7
~
6

u
23 7
5 and t 4 t21

t
22

7
t
23 7
5.

u
31

u
32

u
33

t
32

t
33

t
31

13

Dierent types of shape functions ui for approximated solution on which

the accuracy of the solution may depend can be chosen. For the underlying
half-space elements with constant space interpolation functions are used since
they require less computational time and memory but are able to represent well
the behavior of the half-space. Substitution of known boundary conditions
yields the remaining unknowns using standard matrix solution procedures.
The impedance function is then obtained by integrating the resulting tractions
developed over the soilfoundation interfaces.
The calculated displacements and tractions in the frequency domain have to
be transformed with Discrete Inverse Fast Fourier Transform back into the
time domain [16]. For a function f and its transform F, the formulas for the
Discrete Fast Fourier Transform and the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform
are given as
FN
fk

N 1
T X
nk
fk ei2p N ;
N k0

N 1
1 X
nk
F n ei2p N
T n0

14a
n 0; 1; 2; . . . ; N  1;

where N is the number of the chosen time steps and T is the period.

14b

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

647

4. Numerical results
In this study, the discrete values of impedance functions over wide ranges
of frequency-factors for both surface-supported and embedded foundations are presented by using the substructure approach in the frequency domain which is formulated on base of the BEM. It is demonstrated that the
practical applications so as to provide the user an adequate aid in the majority
of cases, a comprehensive parametric analysis and systematic calculations of
the idealized three dimensional model are performed with various controlling
parameters to estimate the dynamic response of the vibrating soilfoundation
system.
In all investigations accomplished in this parametric analysis, the complex
stiness is computed for the dimensionless frequency factors ao [0.5:0.5:8]. As
shown in Fig. 3, the numerical model deals with the case of rectangular footings supposedly rigid and massless with a length 2L (in the y direction) and
a width 2B (in the x direction). The foundation base is uniformly discretized
with 144 square elements. The basic dimension of a boundary element is taken
to be equal 1.0 m, which should be enough to consider the minimum wavelength. Typically, four or ve aligned elements per shortest wavelength are sufcient. The maximum area of the mesh of the soil surface (Lx Ly) that can be
taken into the analysis with acceptable computational time and memory
requirements, are considered as a size of 24 m 24 m. The boundary element
with the constant approximation is used. The algorithm works for constant
space interpolation as well as for elements with higher order space interpolation functions. A mass density (q) of 20 kN/m3 and a material damping ratio
(b) of 0.0 characterize the supporting soil. Perfect bond between the foundation
and the soil is assumed.
The impedance functions of the rigid square foundation resting on soil under horizontal, vertical, rocking and torsional excitations are determined and
normalized with the corresponding static-stiness coecients. The normalized
spring and damping coecients for foundations under previously mentioned
vibrational modes are shown in Fig. 4. The results are then compared with
the reported results [17,18,6]. The graphs for the normalized spring coecient
and damping coecient for horizontal and rocking vibration modes, as shown
in Fig. 4(a) and (c), are reasonably asymptotic with the reported solutions at
lower and higher frequency range. In addition, the variation of damping coefcients for vertical and torsional modes is good agreement with the corresponding results obtained by the reported analysis. For moderate and high
frequency parameters, the normalized spring coecient for torsional mode is
discrepant then the reported results, but the dierence is within 15%. The comparisons show that considerable discrepancies exist in the vertical vibrational
mode for spring coecient at high frequency range (ao P 6.5). This distinction

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

y

Ly

Lx

2B

2L

(a) Model geometry and surface discretization of half-space

2B

D
2L

(b) The discretization of soil-foundation contact area

Fig. 3. Boundary element mesh of soilsubstructure.

can be attributed to the truncation scheme and dierence between quadratic

and constant elements.
In order to indicate the variation of the foundation dimensions and evaluation of the inuence on its dynamic response, the comparison is performed in
terms of the ve dierent values of length to width ratio (L/B = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).
For dierent rigid rectangular foundations founded on soil, dynamic analysis is
made in the case of three varied Poissons ratios (m = 0, 0.25, 0.50).
On the basis of investigation, made on several examples the inuence of
Poissons ratio on dynamic response of a square surface supported foundation

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

= 1/3, L/B = 1

= 1/3, L/B = 1

1.4

649

1.2

Dynamic Stiffness Coefficients

Dynamic Stiffness Coefficients

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
K real
(BEM)
xx

0.2

real
K xx
(Veletsos and Wei)

C xx
0

0.8

0.6

0.4
K real
(BEM)
zz

real
(Luco and Gazetas)
K zz

0.2

C xx (BEM)

0.1

C zz

(Veletsos and Wei)

6

C zz
0

(a) Horizontal displacement vibration mode

(b) Vertical displacement vibration mode

= 1/3, L/B= 1

= 1/3, L/B = 1

K real
(BEM)
mx

0.9

0.9

(Veletsos and Wei)

K real
mx
C mx (BEM)

0.8

0.8

C mx (Veletsos and Wei)

Dynamic Stiffness Coefficients

Dynamic Stiffness Coefficients

(BEM)
(Luco and Gazetas)

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
real
K mz
(BEM)

0.2

0.1

0.1

(Luco and Gazetas)

K real
mz
C mz (BEM)
C mz (Luco and Gazetas)

(c) Rocking vibration mode

(d) Torsional vibration mode

Fig. 4. Comparison of reported results with normalized dynamic impedance functions related to
dimensionless frequency for surface square foundation located on elastic half-space region.

(L/B = 1), is analyzed. Five dierent Poissons ratios (m = 0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.33
and 0.50) are used for the elastic half-space.
The varied embedment depth of the foundation into the ground modies its
dynamic behavior. The dynamic response of a rectangular massless foundation
for dierent embedment ratios D/B = 0, 1/3, 2/3, 1 and 4/3 is investigated. The
other parameters are dened as, L/B = 1, 2, 3 with Poissons ratio m = 1/3.
The results of the response of the vertical, horizontal, rocking and torsional
vibrations for rectangular foundations resting on, or embedded in, a half-space
are separated and given as real and imaginary part of the functions. Discrete
values of dynamic impedances obtained are given in Figs. 511 as function
of ao. Additionally system parameters are varied and its inuence on the
dynamic behavior of the foundation is claried.

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Fig. 5. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of surface supported
rectangular foundation with varied L/B related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the case
of m = 0.

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Fig. 5 (continued )

651

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 6. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of surface supported
rectangular foundation with varied L/B related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the case
of m = 0.25.

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Fig. 6 (continued )

653

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 7. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of surface supported
rectangular foundation with varied L/B related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the case
of m = 0.50.

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Fig. 7 (continued )

655

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 8. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of surface supported
square foundation with various Poissons ratios related to dimensionless frequency parameters.

E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 8 (continued )

657

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E. Celebi et al. / Appl. Math. Comput. 173 (2006) 636667

Fig. 9. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of foundation with
varied embedded depth resting on a half-space related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the
case of L/B = 1 and m = 1/3.

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Fig. 9 (continued )

659

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Fig. 10. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of foundation with
varied embedded depth resting on a half-space related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the
case of L/B = 2 and m = 1/3.

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Fig. 10 (continued )

661

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Fig. 11. Comparison of impedance functions (with the real and imaginary part) of foundation with
varied embedded depth resting on a half-space related to dimensionless frequency parameters in the
case of L/B = 3 and m = 1/3.

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Fig. 11 (continued )

663

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5. Discussion of results
Numerical results of this study show certain features of practical importance. The following trends can be noticed:
1. Dynamic behaviors of square and rectangular foundations indicate dierences in the resulting curves regarding the surface foundation for several
vibrational modes. Especially, stiness and damping coecients of foundations for horizontal and torsional vibration modes increases with increasing
ao as the ratio of L/B rised. On the contrary, in the case of vertical excitations, the geometry of foundation doesnt inuence the dynamic impedance
values, especially, from lower frequency range to moderate frequency range
as dened 0 6 ao 6 5. In addition, stiness and damping coecients for
rocking vibration mode vary with the direction of harmonic eect. Spring
coecient, however, increases remarkably with the ratio L/B at higher frequency range (ao P 5).
2. In general, the variation of Poisson ratio on the spring stiness for surface
square foundations has superior eects according to geometrical damping.
This tendency becomes pronounced in the higher frequency values. This
eects presency cannot be seen for all modes unless the Poisson ratio is
equal to 1/3. Particularly, for the value of Poisson ratio is 1/2, translation,
rocking and coupling between translation-rocking stinesses appear to
decreasing trend to the higher frequency values.
3. The stiness coecients, which are obtained for all vibrational modes of
embedded square foundations, varied depending mainly on dimensionless
frequency parameters. This tendency increases at the higher frequency values only for the case of surface foundations (D/B = 0). Only for the surface
foundation horizontal translation stiness, Kxx, and horizontal translationrocking stiness, Kmy,x, do not change with frequency. Furthermore, in the
lateral vibration mode, spring stiness coecients of embedded foundations
to compare surface foundations, take lower values in the middle and higher
frequency interval. These results contradict the general rule that embedment
increases the impedance functions. The decreases of stiness coecients
with increasing of frequency parameter ao may create a serious case for vertical vibrations then for horizontal ones.
4. The decrease of the exibility coecients which connects the lateral displacement to moment while embedding increase show that, from the stiness
point of view, coupling between these two degrees of freedom increase inversely with the embedding. For the surface foundations this coupling term
remains small so that it can be neglected. In addition, this interaction term
Kmy,x may take negative values at the higher frequencies for the embedded
foundation cases. Similar case has also been obtained for the cases where
circular foundations founded on half-space soil model [6]. It has been seen

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665

that the embedment mostly aects the moment-rocking and momenttorsional relations.
5. For the embedded foundations (D/B = 4/3) vertical spring stiness decreases
remarkably for the lower frequency parameter values (ao < 3) while for the
surface foundations variation of this stiness is leaded towards a constant
value. Although Pais and Kausel [19] and Tsai et al. [20] used the assumption that vertical stiness is independent from frequency for these two foundation types. This assumption is not feasible for the deep foundation
samples applied for the incompressible soil at the middle and higher frequency interval.
6. As embedding ratio of foundations to soil increase both the real and imaginary parts of stiness coecients increase. In other words the elements of
exibility matrix which is the inverse of the stiness matrix can be proportionally smaller as the foundation becomes deeper. The increase of building
foundation and its surface contact area with embedment promote the higher
damping eect. That is, waves propagating from the superstructure into the
ground are not turn back due to boundless soil medium and this causes an
energy loss. As the energy loss depends on the frequency this leads to an
additional viscous damping eect. This indicates that spring eect, describing the soil stiness in the embedded foundations and geometrical damping
eect, corresponding to equivalent radiation damping, is more pronounced
with respect to surface foundation for all vibrational modes.

6. Conclusions
In this study, the discrete values of impedance functions over wide ranges of
frequency-factors are presented for both surface-supported and embedded
foundations. The numerical results are obtained by using the substructure
approach in the frequency domain which is formulated on basis of the BEM
derived from the fundamental solution for a homogeneous, isotropic and linear-elastic continuum.
The numerical model is validated in almost all cases of vibration modes for
its ability to represent the foundations on elastic half-space medium by comparing the results with the analytical solutions of reported analysis.
This paper presented that in almost all vibration modes of impedance functions of three-dimensional surface supported and embedded foundation models over wide ranges of frequency-factors so as to provide the user with an
adequate aid in the majority of cases. It has been demonstrated that in practical
applications and to show the solutions of this type of problems to civil engineers, a comprehensive parametric analysis and systematic calculations have
been performed with various controlling parameters to evaluate the dynamic

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response of the vibrating soilfoundation system. The obtained numerical results should enable practicing engineers to take into account the linear SSI
problems for wide ranges of frequency factors. The civil engineers who have
to design signicant constructions on soft ground imposed to dynamic loads
will therefore be delighted by the appearance of these clear and easily understandable diagrams of dynamic impedance functions.
Acknowledgement
This project is supported by the Turkish State Planning Organization (DPT,
2003 K 120 970) is greatly acknowledged. Also, the rst author would like to
express his sincere thanks to the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst
(DAAD) for the nancial support of his research stay at the Ruhr University
Bochum (DAAD, contact number: A/03/21308). In particular, the author
wishes to thank Gunther Schmid for using the numerical simulations and programming and for his intensive interest and helpful comments.
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