Pseudostatic Analysis of a Coupled Building-Foundation-Slope System for Seismic and Gravity Actions

This paper studies the seismic response of buildings located on slopes, taking into account the coupled behavior of building, foundation and slope. Two representative building-foundation systems on two different slopes are considered and response under gravity and seismic actions is compared with ‘flat ground’ and ‘fixed at base’ conditions. Nonlinear 2D finite element analysis using ABAQUS is performed. The effects of interaction between building, foundation and slope on the position of the sliding surface, foundation settlement, vertical and lateral displacement of the building, and bending moments and shear forces in superstructure columns and beams are explored. It is observed that the interaction has significant effect not only on the slope stability but also on the building response. The effect of foundation-soil is much larger in case of buildings on slopes, than the buildings on flat terrain.