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Influence of structure–foundation–soil interaction on ground motions recorded within buildings

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Abstract

The present work investigates the effect of soil–structure interaction (SSI) on foundation motion recorded at accelerometric stations installed at the lowest level of buildings. For this purpose, two sites of instrumented buildings, for which foundation and free-field strong motion recordings are available, are studied in terms of transfer functions as well as strong motion intensity and frequency content. The importance of such an instrumentation scheme is highlighted, especially when it comes to assessing the filtering action of the foundation on moderate to high frequency components of free-field motions. The effect of ground motion filtering at the soil–foundation interface is further quantified in terms of amplitude and frequency content. The recordings are supplemented by a parametric analysis of the sub-structured soil–structure system leading to regression expressions that associate the intensity and frequency parameters of the recordings obtained at the base of the instrumented buildings and the corresponding free-field ones. It is shown that kinematic and inertial decoupling of SSI is not only a useful but also a necessary task for correcting earthquake records obtained at building basements particularly for high frequency-dominated ground motions.

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Adapted from Mylonakis et al. (2006)

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Acknowledgements

The first author was financially supported by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) (Grant No. 941) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI). This support is highly appreciated. This research work was partially supported by the Scientific Project (HELPOS MIS 5002697).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

    Dimitris Sotiriadis & Nikolaos Klimis

  2. Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK-EPPO), Thessaloniki, Greece

    Basil Margaris

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Anastasios Sextos

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anastasios Sextos

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  1. Dimitris Sotiriadis
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  2. Nikolaos Klimis
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  3. Basil Margaris
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  4. Anastasios Sextos
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Correspondence to Dimitris Sotiriadis.

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Sotiriadis, D., Klimis, N., Margaris, B. et al. Influence of structure–foundation–soil interaction on ground motions recorded within buildings. Bull Earthquake Eng 17, 5867–5895 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-019-00700-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-019-00700-6

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