Experimental and numerical assessment of soil-structure interaction effects in the case of mine-induced vibrations

Abstract

Abstract Earthquakes are the most intensive sources of free-field vibration. However, mine-induced rockbursts, as a result of underground exploitations in mining areas, are also a hazard to buildings. Additionally, as in the case of earthquake-induced vibrations, also in the case of mining tremors the soil-structure interaction (SSI) phenomenon is observed. In this paper, an investigation of the one of SSI effects – differences between the simultaneously recorded free-field and building foundation vibration, is performed. The research was carried out on the example of an actual, typical, masonry, low-rise office building situated in a coal basin in Poland – the Upper Silesian Coalfield (USC). Two approaches were considered in the analysis: experimental full-scale tests, and numerical assessment using Finite Element Method (FEM) modelling. A rich set of experimental data was collected from the free-field and foundation. Using the measurement data, the most important parameters that affect the SSI phenomenon were considered, e.g. magnitude of mining tremor energy, epicentre distance from mining rockburst, and peak ground acceleration of vibration. Numerical analysis of the transmission of the incident wave to the building foundation is carried out using a three-dimensional (3D) FEM model.