Distributed analysis of interacting soil and structural systems under dynamic loading

Accurate, verifiable, and efficient analytical models for interacting soil and structure systems are still very challenging. While geotechnical software usually has limited capacity for structural analysis in the inelastic response range, the converse is true for structural analysis packages. In this paper, a multi-platform analytical approach is developed and verified. The recommended procedure is based on distributing the components of the soil–structure system under investigation onto a number of software packages, to take advantage of the most suitable capabilities of each analysis platform. The components are run through a central coordination application, terms UI-SIMCOR, which sends deformation commands to the various different analysis programs, and obtains resistance response data. The process of dynamic analysis, using a step-by-step integration approach, continues in this closed-loop mode of sending deformation commands, and receiving resistance values until the dynamic loading episode is completed. The proposed multi-platform method is tested versus experiments on piles embedded in soil and the results are shown to be of very high quality. The approach eliminates the need of having one software analysis package with all needed features, since the best features of a number of analysis packages can be seamlessly integrated in one system-level dynamic analysis.