Earthquake Wave Propagation through Soil Profile

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11:43 AM

Objectives

In this exercise, the student develops a FLAC model to analyze earthquake motion
that propagates through a 20-m deep soil profile. Embedded in this soil profile is a
shallowly embedded strip foundation. The purpose is to evaluate the level of
strong ground motion at the top of the footing for the following cases:
1. Shear wave velocity (vs) = 500 m/s, Poisson's ratio 0.4, soil density = 2000
kg/m3
2. Shear wave velocity (vs) = 1000 m/s, Poisson's ratio 0.4, soil density = 2000
kg/m3

Soil Model
The Taft record, shown below, will be used for the evaluations. The acceleration
values given below are in g with peak ground acceleration equal to about 0.15 g

Steven F. Bartlett, 2016

Earthquake Motion Page 1

Required Outputs
Wednesday, November 9, 2016

1.
2.
3.
4.

11:43 AM

Horizontal acceleration time history of footing (top of footing) for t = 17 to 25 s

Horizontal displacement time history of footing (top of footing) for t = 17 to 25 s
Horizontal acceleration time history of base of model for t = 17 to 25 s
Horizontal displacement time history of base of model t = 17 to 25 s

Steven F. Bartlett, 2010

Earthquake Motion Page 2

FLAC Model
Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11:43 AM

conf dynamic
set dynamic off
def setup; defines constants
count = 0
; initilize count
begin_t = 17
; beg time history
final_t = 25
; end time history
soil_den = 2000
; soil density
vs_soil = 500
; shear wave velocity
sh_mod = soil_den*vs_soil*vs_soil ; shear modulus
po_rat = 0.4
; Poisson's ratio
bu_mod = sh_mod*(2.0*(1.0+po_rat))/(3.0*(1.0-2.0*po_rat)); Bulk modulus
end
setup
;
g 20 10
gen 0,-20 0,0 40,0 40,-20
me
;
prop den=soil_den shear=sh_mod bulk=bu_mod ; soil properties
; foundation properties
group 'Rock:granite' i 10 11 j 10 ;
model mohr group 'Rock:granite'
prop density=27000.0 bulk=4.39E10 shear=3.02E10 cohesion=5.51E7 friction=51.0 dilation=0.0 tension=
1.17E7 group 'Rock:granite'
;
; boundary conditions
fix x y j 1 ; base
fix x i 1 ; left side of model
fix x i 21 ; right side of model
set gravity=9.81
solve
;
;
def dummy ; ... count number of history points
count = count + 1
end
;

Steven F. Bartlett, 2010

Earthquake Motion Page 3

FLAC model continued

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11:43 AM

set dynamic on
set large
apply ff i 1 j 11; free field boundary
free x i 1
free x i 21
ini dy_damp hyst default -3.325 0.823 j 1 11 ; sand foundation
;ini dy_damp rayleigh 0.02 6
; apply acceleration time history to base of model
his read 200 TAFT_FLAC.txt
apply xacc 9.81 his 200 yvel=0 j 1
his dytime
his xacc j 11 i 11
his xacc j 1 i 11
his xdisp j 11 i 11
his xdisp j 1 i 11
set dytime begin_t
solve dytime final_t

Steven F. Bartlett, 2010

Earthquake Motion Page 4

Blank
Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11:43 AM

Steven F. Bartlett, 2010

Earthquake Motion Page 5