| The goal of the research reported herein is the development of an advanced computational approach for the analysis of dynamic soil/structure interaction (SSI) phenomena, in general, and, in specific, the analysis of buried reinforced concrete arches subjected to severe dynamic stress and velocity transients in the soil. The computational approach is developed to allow the modeler to account for the significant factors involved in dynamic SSI, such as the material nonlinearities of the soil and structure, including strain softening in the concrete and rate effects in the soil, and, also,the geometric nonlinearities due to large strains and large displacements. The other objective in the development of this computational approach is the minimization of execution time and data storage requirements, relative to conventional numerical approaches.;The development of the analytical approach for modelling buried reinforced concrete arches subjected to shock waves is accomplished in three separate steps. In the first step, the Finite Difference technique is coupled with the Finite Element method to yield an efficient, flexible, general purpose numerical tool for SSI problems. In the second step, which is directed towards the specific goal of modelling buried reinforced concrete arches, a nonlocal continuum damage/plasticity model is developed for the concrete, and advanced constitutive models for the soil, steel, and soil/concrete interface are implemented. In the third step, the validity of the proposed analytical approach is shown through successful comparisons between the predicted (or a priori) results and the experimental results of three test programs. In the first test program, simply supported, reinforced concrete beams were impact loaded at midspan with an explosive driven ram. The second and third test programs were similar in that buried reinforced concrete arches were subjected to blast loads generated at the surface using conventional explosives. However, in the two test programs, the structure's geometry and material properties were different as well as the depth of burial and the soil material properties. The successful results of the analyses of these three test programs prove the validity of the advanced computational approach. |
