Effects of Isolated Spread Footings on the Dynamics of Soil-Structure Interaction

Abstract

The objective of this work is to examine the dynamics of soil-structure systems supported on isolated spread footings, in contradistinction with the rigid basemat often used in soil-structure interaction (SSI) studies. By considering a column-supported single-story structure on isolated footings, an explicit formula for the fundamental natural period of the system was obtained. This allows examination of the relative importance of the various system parameters that cause the natural period of the SSI system to increase compared with that of the corresponding fixed-base system. The key parameter is the relative stiffness of an individual column to the rocking stiffness of the corresponding footing. If this parameter is small (