Effect of Soil Flow Changes on Structure Loads

Abstract

Current methods of analyzing the response of buried structures to ground shock loads consider the effects of structure response on structure loads, but do not consider the effects of structure motion on the soil flow near the structure and subsequent changes in the structure loads and response. Analyses of the effects of these soil flow changes for a high explosive detonation very close to a structure have not been reported until now. In this paper, dynamic finite-element analyses, including the detonation of high explosives in the soil, are used to determine the changes in soil flow and structure loads. These analyses demonstrate that the soil flow near the structure changes significantly due to structure motion, and neglecting these changes in flow causes the underprediction of late-time loads and structure response.