A method for nonlinear dynamic response analysis of semi-infinite foundation soil

This paper presents development of a special finite difference method for the nonlinear dynamic response analysis of semi-infinite foundation soil. Semi-infinite domain is mapped into the finite domain using special mapping. For the region of engineering interest, mapping is isometrical, and for far field, shrink mapping which transforms an infinite interval into a finite interval is adopted. Using linear and nonlinear constitutive models, the responses of semi-infinite foundation soil are computed using a proposed method with a small mesh model and an extensive mesh model. Surface loadings or incident earthquake waves are applied to the models in the computations. Good agreements were obtained among the theoretical and computed results of the two models and the effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated.