Numerical modelling of wave propagation in anisotropic soil using a displacement unit-impulse-response-based formulation of the scaled boundary finite element method

An efficient method for modelling the propagation of elastic waves in unbounded domains is developed. It is applicable to soil-structure interaction problems involving scalar and vector waves, unbounded domains of arbitrary geometry and anisotropic soil. The scaled boundary finite element method is employed to derive a novel equation for the displacement unit-impulse response matrix on the soil-structure interface. The proposed method is based on a piecewise linear approximation of the first derivative of the displacement unit-impulse response matrix and on the introduction of an extrapolation parameter in order to improve the numerical stability. In combination, these two ideas allow for the choice of significantly larger time steps compared to conventional methods, and thus lead to increased efficiency. As the displacement unit-impulse response approaches zero, the convolution integral representing the force-displacement relationship can be truncated. After the truncation the computational effort only increases linearly with time. Thus, a considerable reduction of computational effort is achieved in a time domain analysis. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and high efficiency of the new method for two-dimensional soil-structure interaction problems.