The Application Of Boundary Element Techniques For Some Soil Structure Interaction Problems

Boundary-element technique research performed to solve soil-structure interaction problems is the basis for this report. Specifically, it was designed to answer questionable situations for long hydraulic U-Lock structures erected on elastic soil. A review of earlier research that employed the Kelvin-type element directed the decision in favor of Flamant-type boundary element. Both constant and linear elements were developed and many sample problems were dealt with to illustrate the capabilities of these elements in the problem situations of soil-structure relationships. The Flamant-type boundary element proved to be convenient, gave better results for displacement problems using the constant element, offered satisfactory behavior description of soil-structure response, required considerably fewer elements than the conventional model, provided more accuracy in stress analysis of structure, and was confirmed as very beneficial for use in input data preparation. Research was also conducted on soil-structure interaction problems with the structure modeled by the finite-element method and the soil modeled by the boundary-element method. A model problem suggested by the AEWES was selected for study and solving. The emphasis was to develop a convenient and economical technique to couple the boundary- and finite-element methods of analysis. A computer code for coupling the two methods has been developed in FORTRAN. Keywords: Soil mechanics; Structural engineering; Mathematical analysis.