Dynamic vertical compliance of strip foundations in layered soils

In this paper, results of a detailed investigation on the dynamic response of rigid strip foundations in viscoelastic soils under vertical excitation are presented. An advanced boundary element algorithm developed by incorporating isoparametric quadratic elements and a sophisticated self‐adapting numerical integration scheme has been used for this investigation. Foundations supported on three types of soil profiles, namely, homogeneous half‐space, stratum‐over‐half‐space and stratum‐over‐bedrock are considered. The influence of material properties like Poisson's ratio and material damping as well as the influence of geometrical properties such as depth of embedment and layer thickness are studied. The effect of the type of contact at the soil‐foundation interface is also investigated.