Assessment of shallow rocking foundation supporting RC shear wall frame structure: a numerical study

In recent years, researchers have taken advantage of the nonlinear characteristics of the underlying soil to mitigate the excessive seismic force demands on the superstructure under earthquake excitation. For this purpose, the conventionally designed foundation can be replaced with rocking foundation. This is achieved by under proportioning the shallow foundation. Although the mechanism of rocking foundations has been well documented, there remains a gap in developing a methodology for reduction of foundation sizes in multi storey Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear wall framed structure. Therefore, this study focuses on the seismic responses of a shallow foundations supporting a multistorey RC shear wall framed structure. The foundation for RC shear wall is proportioned by gradually reducing the earthquake load considered for the foundations to enhance the increased rocking effect and to mitigate seismic force demands. Thereafter, key parameters responsible for seismic behavior of sub-structure are being compared with conventionally designed foundation with increasing foundation rocking, by varying type of underlying soil and with increasing height. Seismic behavior obtained by implementing a series of nonlinear time history analyses indicates that the foundation rocking greatly influences the dynamic properties. With increasing degree of foundation rocking, natural fundamental period of the overall structure gets lengthened, with decreasing peak roof acceleration, thereby mitigating the peak base moment and base shear experienced at the shear wall compared to conventionally designed foundation. On the other hand, it is observed that there is an increase in roof displacement and shear wall settlement at the foundation level. It is found that the foundation of shear wall can be designed by considering 40%, 60% of earthquake loads for zone V and zone II structural designs, respectively without encountering excessive settlements. From the sensitivity analysis it is highlighted that the foundation size and design seismicity impact the base shear contribution ratios between shear wall and column members, fundamental natural period and foundation settlement.