Recent Advances in Non-linear Soil Structure Interaction Analysis using LS-DYNA

Michael Willford Richard Sturt Yuli Huang Ibrahim Almufti Xiaonian Duan

Arup
Global Firm of Design, Planning and Management Consultants 10,000 staff worldwide

LS-DYNA
Multi-physics simulation software developed by LSTC

Typical Design Applications Impact Blast Seismic Numerical prototyping

Arup collaborating with LSTC since 1982 Arup enhancements made in our development version of the code, later ported to LSTC commercial version

Impact
Nuclear Transport Containers Automotive Crashworthiness Impact and Penetration

Seismic performance of structures

Incorporating Non-linear SSI Direct Method

Distant Soil Domain Edge Moving as Free-Field

Soil is non-linear, can be layered and site specific Nonlinear Structure

Basement and Piles

Mesh density designed to transmit frequencies desired Motion input via Lysmer dampers at bedrock Vertical cut faces of soil are distant (requiring large model) and subjected to free-field site response motions wave passage and incoherency can be included via spatial variation of input motions

Soil FE Mesh Horizontal Input Ch Force Time History

Numerical Simulation of Traditional Site Response using LS-DYNA

Non-linear hysteretic soil model of layered site over bedrock 1-D Vertically propagating shear wave Transmitting bedrock boundary Amplitude dependence of stiffness and material damping simulated

Typical soil hysteresis

Validation of Site Response Simulation

Comparison with measurements in the Chiba borehole array Similar results to SHAKE for moderate levels of ground motion Excellent comparison with DeepSoil for strongly non-linear response

Porewater pressure generation - validation

Example - Dobry et al (1995) centrifuge test on sloping site

Excellent simulation of generation and dissipation of pore pressures

Validation: Reinforced Concrete Simulation

UCSD full scale 7 story rc shear wall shake table test

Comparison of test and simulation

Progressive stiffness and strength degradation under successive cycles Crack intensity also well predicted

Validation: Squat Shear Wall NUPEC shake table test (c.1994)

Cyclic degradation Shear failure

Project Applications
LNG tanks Soft soil acting like lateral seismic isolation Uplift of flexible foundation Heavy building subjected to adjacent deep excavation and earthquake Effect of initial stress state in soils Strain rate effects Interaction of adjacent structures Permanent deformation Offshore Gravity Petrochemical Platform Foundation sliding and seismic isolation

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad (1995)

Two 72m dia. Tanks

Hazardous product Total mass 100,000t each Shallow soft-soil layer

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

1-D soil column site response analysis

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

Site Response Results
Natural period of primary inertial mode c. 0.4 secs Soft site provides natural isolation elastic spectral demands are halved But foundation must support gravity load and will stiffen site

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

Effect of pile group on site response
Non-linear modeling of soft soil and driven steel pipe piles Non-linear local p-y soil-pile springs Upper, lower and best estimate soil properties Linear elastic halfspace for class B bedrock

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

Effect of pile group on site response

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

Effect of tank and contents
Soil is highly non-linear and inertia forces are very high Add Housner mass-spring analogy for tank slosh and impulsive Assume rigid basemat

Point Fortin LNG Tanks, Trinidad

Include tank inertia forces with complete SSI Model

Conclusions
Non-linear modeling of soft soil enables benefit to be taken of natural Isolation Steel pipe piles support gravity and overturning and do not yield in SSE

Ground improvement would have stiffened site and increased demand on tanks

LNG Tank: 3D SSI simulation with explicit fluid and tank wall uplift (2004)
Outer tank wall Soil mesh

Symmetry plane Distant side boundaries Bedrock level transmitting boundary earthquake motion input system Piles and nonlinear pilesoil interaction springs

Analysis now performed in 3D with explicit modeling of tank wall, base and LNG

Cross-section overview of response

Sensitivity to edge boundary distance checked

Cf. Wolfs cone analogy for practical purposes

Detail of uplift of flexible base plate

Effect of construction of large excavation adjacent to existing tall Tall reinforced building (2009)

concrete building with basement

Adjacent excavation 55 deep 185 wide Secant pile buttress to be installed to bedrock to control movements due to construction Earthquake to be considered

Effects of concern
Movement of existing building due to excavation

Forces in props across excavation

Design of buttress to prevent slip-circle failure Effect of M7.5 earthquake

Modeling issues
3-D problem with non-horizontal surface (after excavation) Previous experience shows non-linear soil behavior essential for accurate ground movement predictions Soil properties vary across site due to different effective stress states (weight of building, unloading beneath excavation) Buttress is segmented concrete secant pile wall potential sliding interfaces - and Soil properties at slow strain rate (excavation) and dynamic strain rate (seismic) are different

Sequence of Simulation
Initialize free field soil pressures

Simulate construction of existing building

Simulate construction of secant buttress and shoring walls

Simulate excavation and insertion of props

Apply specified earthquake

Visualization of Simulation
Vertical deflection contoured

Green/Blue =settlement
Orange/Red/Purple =heave

Results

Predicted settlement profile due to construction of existing building match ongoing measurements very well Additional permanent settlement and rotation are induced by excavation and by earthquake

Strut Force, kips/strut

Use in design
Permanent increase in prop forces due to earthquake
20 30 50 60 Time, s 40 design is Buttress optimized to control movements

-200

-400

Legend
Strut Strut Strut Strut 1 2 3 4

-600

-800

10

20

30

40

50

60

Time, s

Effect of buttress and time varying soil properties are incorporated in seismic response

Malampaya Gas Platform Philippines (1994)

Massive reinforced concrete structure to support 13,000t topsides Sea-towed to offshore site Seabed leveled with engineered gravel fill Ballasted to seabed

Malampaya Seismic design issues

Conventional design would place ballast offshore to prevent sliding in design earthquakes (i.e. fixed base) This design would require seismic isolation of deck to reduce equipment responses Alternative is to reduce quantity of ballast and permit limited sliding in SSE

Malampaya CGS, Philippines

FEED Study - 3D Model

Malampaya CGS, Philippines

without seismic isolators

with seismic isolators

Malampaya CGS, Philippines SSE response analysis

Seismic isolator hysteresis sliding soil layer hysteresis

Similar beneficial effect on topsides acceleration

Outcome
Isolation associated with sliding on engineered soil layer is sufficient to control topsides equipment responses Sliding deflections easily accommodated in flexible seabed pipeline design Cost is saved by reduction of requirement for offshore placed ballast, the cost of seismic isolators and multiple flexible topside connections

Summary
We have conducted extensive development and (importantly) validation of LS-DYNA to improve the design of major construction projects Non-linear soil structure interaction analysis is feasible, and is being used in design practice to find realistic and economic solutions to complex design issues Non-linear analysis is the only means of predicting important effects such as permanent deformation, sliding, uplift etc.

In some cases very significant performance and/or cost benefits can be realized by taking account of non-linear effects explicitly

JFK Airport - Bridge Structures

LRS Mass

Description of SSI Model

LRS Column (Modelled using Seismic Beam Elements)

Pile Cap

Bridge Bearing Soil Layers (Hysteretic Soil Model)

Piles Embedded in Soil (Modelled using Seismic Beam Elements)

29.5m

Free Field Motion Applied to End Boundaries Bedrock Motion Applied at Base 27.5m

10.0m

LS-DYNA - Validation of Soil Model Pile - soil interaction

Pile group lateral load test simulation at JFK Airport Quadrant 4
Required by client to demonstrate capacity of pile group. Test examining static push-over condition. We used same DYNA model as for dynamic study to examine pile group test.

Loading Direction

LS-DYNA - Validation of Soil Model

Pile group test simulation -comparison of Results

Leading Piles Push-over Analyses

Pile Test Trailing Piles