Equivalent fixed-base models for soil-structure interaction systems

To simplify the consideration of the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects, a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) replacement oscillator has been successfully utilized to represent an SSI system with SDOF structural model. In the present paper, this approximation is first extended to an equivalent fixed-base model with modified system parameters. Based on this generalization, a methodology is then proposed to determine the equivalent fixed-base models of a general multi degree-of-freedom SSI system using simple system identification techniques in the frequency domain. Various fixed-base models are formulated and their accuracy is compared for a five-story shear building resting on soft soil. It is shown that the actual SSI system can be accurately represented with an appropriate fixed-base model.