Abstract Summary
This paper proposes a new efficient three-dimensional building-soil model for predicting low-amplitude ground-borne vibration in building with piled foundations. The model employs the singular boundary method to compute the soil reaction. The soil is strongly coupled with the piled foundation, modelled as axial rods and Euler-Bernoulli beams to account for axial, torsional and bending motions, respectively. Furthermore, previous research has discussed the influence of considering rotations and bending moments in the compatibility conditions for coupling the piled foundation and the soil. In this work, the robustness of the model and the influence of that coupling assumption in the building response is discussed by comparing, in a three-story building example, its results with the ones obtained by a three-dimensional finite element-boundary element approach. Finally, the comparison of results highlights the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method and illustrates its practical application.
