Parametric study of structure-soil-structure interaction in time and frequency domain

In this paper, focusing on structure-soil-structure interaction, dynamic behavior of two adjacent structures with flexible base is studied. The main identifiers of this structure-soil-structure interaction system are defined with dimensionless parameters. With considering a logical range of the parameters, various states including most practical cases are calculated. Soil flexibility and dynamic correlation between two adjacent structures through the soil are accounted for using springs and dashpots at the base of the structures. The equations of motion are solved in time and frequency domains for two adjacent single degree of freedom systems to make it possible to study parametrically the effect of structure-soil-structure interaction on the responses. As a result of harmonic analysis, natural frequencies with and without considering damping, damping ratios and amplitude of the system’s dynamic responses are calculated and compared with those of the single building (no adjacency). Also, the cases prone to a possible pounding are recognized. By analyzing such a system in both time and frequency domain, it is shown that with appropriate arrangements, both of the analysis procedures result in the same responses for an interaction problem.