Investigation on Influence of Embedment Depth of Foundation on Seismic Response of Building Considering Soil—Structure Interaction

Seismic Soil-Structure Interaction (SSSI) plays an important role in estimating the long-term performance of the buildings. Seismic demand of building supported over rigid strata are well assessed. Nevertheless, the impact of incorporating embedment depth of shallow foundation on seismic response of the building remains a relatively unexplored area. This ongoing study delves into the effects of varying embedment depths for isolated and raft foundations on the behavior of the building during seismic events. A 10-storey physical model, and isolated, and raft foundation of embedment depth (75, 150, 300 mm) has been used in this study. All the tests are performed using shaking table in laminar container, and verified using numerical investigation. The models are subjected to sine sweep tests (to estimate the natural frequency), and scaled down earthquake motions. Different parameters such as, inter-storey drift, and rocking of foundation has been investigated and reported here. The comparative study brings out the performance of two foundation systems of the building during seismic disturbances. Results indicated that the structure resting on raft foundation with different depth of embedment experiences lesser inter-storey drift (17.73–18.36%), and rocking (9.07–10.64%), in comparison to the structure supported on isolated footing.