Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131

www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

A combined finite element based soil–structure interaction model

for large-scale systems and applications on parallel platforms
M.C. Genes, S. Kocak ∗
Department of Civil Engineering, Cukurova University, Adana 01330, Turkey

Received 17 September 2001; received in revised form 4 March 2002; accepted 6 March 2002

Abstract

A finite element (FE) based soil–structure interaction (SSI) model is presented and parallelized for applications on distributed
systems. The SSI model is established by combining two methods: the Consistent Infinitesimal FE Cell Method (also referred to
as ‘the scaled boundary-finite element method’) proposed by Wolf and Song (Finite-element modelling of unbounded media, Wiley,
England, 1996) for modelling the soil region extending to infinity (far-field), and the standard FE for the finite region (near-field)
and the structure. By using this combined model, a computer program for harmonic and transient analyses of soil–structure systems
is coded. The model is investigated by solving various example problems existing in the literature. The results of the model agree
with the results presented in the literature for selected problems. The advantages of the model are demonstrated through these
comparisons. In order to decrease the computation time and achieve the solution of large-scale problems, the model is parallelized.
As a result of this parallel solution, significant time is saved for large-scale problems.  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: Soil–structure interaction; Transient; Impedance; Parallel; Finite element

1. Introduction Therefore, soil region, which extends to infinity, is trunc-

In soil–structure interaction (SSI) problems the ability
to predict the coupled behaviour of the soil and structure
is necessary. Therefore, these problems require com-
bined soil and structure models. While structure models
are very well established in the literature, soil models
involve complicated analysis due to their unbounded nat-
ure. The main difficulty in modelling the soil region
arises from the propagating wave characteristics in the
soil medium. The main goal of many related engineering
studies is to develop SSI models, which are reliable and
easy to implement. There are numerous valuable works
in literature, which are focused on the proposition of
mathematical models for soil region of the SSI problems.
Most of these mathematical models require a solution
defined over a computational mesh. For practical pur-
poses, a limited size computational mesh is required.
∗
Corresponding author. Present address: Scientific Computation
Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, CII 7309, Troy, NY
12180-3590, USA. Tel.:+1-518-276-6168; fax:+1-518-276-4886.
E-mail address: kocakFs@yahoo.com (S. Kocak).
ated at certain regions called artificial boundaries. The
waves propagating through the soil medium should be
dissipated at the artificial boundaries of the compu-
tational mesh. This condition somehow has to be satis-
fied in the mathematical models. The main challenge in
SSI analyses is the representation of energy dissipated
at the artificial boundaries.
Soil region, which in many cases presents a complex
and non-linear behaviour, can be discretized using the
Finite Element Method (FEM), the Boundary Element
Method (BEM) or hybrid models. All of these have
advantages and disadvantages depending on the
applied problem.
FE models require a large-scale mesh to represent the
surrounding soil medium (near-field), which is bounded
by the far-field that is represented by artificial bound-
aries. In numerical modelling of wave propagation prob-
lems the presence of artificial boundaries introduces spu-
rious reflections, which contaminate the solution. This
error can be avoided by introducing special boundary
conditions, which might be referred to as radiation
damping. These special boundary conditions such as

0141-0296/02/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 4 1 - 0 2 9 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 4 2 - 1
1120 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
transmitting, non-reflecting and silent boundaries absorb
the wave energy. The non-reflecting viscous boundaries
developed by Lysmer and Kuhlemeyer [2] and White et
al. [3] have been widely used for various dynamic soil–
structure interaction problems. These boundaries are
only capable of transmitting plane and cylindrical waves
and, therefore, must be located far away from the struc-
ture or source of dynamic load. This results in large-
scale FE meshes.
Another way of treating these artificial boundaries
might be introducing infinite elements for modelling the
far-field of SSI problems. These elements were proposed
by Bettess [4] to obtain solutions to static and steady-
state dynamic problems. Since then, many authors,
including Medina and Penzien [5], Yang and Yun [6]
and Yerli et al. [7] have successfully extended the infi-
nite element formulation to model wave propagation
problems in an infinite medium. Similar to the artificial
boundary treatment discussed in the previous paragraph,
a fine FE mesh is required to define the near-field for
reliable predictions when infinite elements are used
along the truncated regions.
BEM is a semi-numerical method and requires
obtaining the fundamental solutions pertaining to the
region, provided that the radiation condition at infinity
is satisfied. It has advantages because only surface
discretization of the body is required which decreases the
spatial dimension by one. Two- and three-dimensional
problems involving the dynamic analysis of surface and
underground structures have been solved by the BEM.
This is evident in the works of Karabalis and Beskos
[8], Israil and Banerjee [9] and Von Estorff et al. [10].
Multi-region Boundary Element Method is a different
BEM approach proposed by Tanrikulu et al. [11]. Tanri-
kulu et al. solved two- and three-dimensional layered
type problems and underground structure problems
under harmonic and transient loading. BEM decreases
the computational mesh significantly. However, it
induces an un-symmetric equation system, and its use is
limited when non-linearity is of concern.
Hybrid numerical schemes combine the FEM for the
structure or the near-field with another numerical or ana-
lytical method for the far-field. The widely used hybrid
model is Coupled Finite Element and Boundary Element
Method (FEBEM) both in time and frequency domain.
Two- and three-dimensional problems involving the
dynamic analysis of surface and underground structures
have been solved by the FEBEM. This is evident in the
works of Von Estorff and Kausel [12], Von Estorff and
Firuziaan [13], Yu et al. [14]. Coupled FEBEM analysis
exploits the advantages of the FEM and the BEM and
forms a relatively small-size computational mesh, yet
requires the conversion of system equations into either
FE or BE form. Still, for many engineering problems FE
based formulations are preferred and have wider appli-
cations.
To obtain a simple yet efficient and reliable soil model
for far-field, an FE based model proposed by Wolf and
Song, the Consistent Infinitesimal FE Cell Method
(CIFEM), is used [1,15,16]. CIFEM is a BE-like method
that decreases the spatial dimension by one without
requiring a fundamental solution [1]. In their recent pap-
ers, Wolf and Song [17–19] referred to the CIFEM as
‘The Scaled Boundary-Finite Element Method’. In this
study, however, the method will be addressed as the
CIFEM. The method satisfies the radiation condition and
calculates the dynamic response of the region extending
to infinity at a truncated region [1]. By using the CIFEM,
the chosen truncated soil region representing the far-field
might be very close to the near-field or the super-struc-
ture. This differs from other FE based methods where
the far-field should be kept at a significant distance from
the near-field. Also, the free soil surface, which has to
be discretized in the BEM, can either be eliminated or
kept to minimum by using CIFEM. This results with a
small sized computational mesh. This and other aspects
of the CIFEM will be demonstrated by comparisons in
the example problems section. However, the CIFEM
results in a system of first-order non-linear ordinary dif-
ferential equations (ODE) for the dynamic-stiffness
matrix with the independent variable frequency (w). In
other FE or BEM based algorithms, the system equations
can be written in discrete frequency values. Therefore,
through the CIFEM, dynamic-stiffness calculations of
the infinite region are performed through an integration
algorithm in a pre-defined frequency interval. Also, in
the CIFEM formulations, the radiation condition, which
is satisfied at high frequency values, is presented by
introducing a non-dimensional (ND) frequency. Due to
this latter assumption, the integration algorithm for the
solution of the resulting ODE is started from high fre-
quency values, which requires some extra calculations
until the desired frequency level is reached. Hence, for
large-scale problems the computation time increases sig-
nificantly because in order to reach a specific frequency
result, the calculations have to be performed within a
frequency interval until that particular frequency is
reached. The calculations made throughout the study
unveiled that the vast majority of the time is spent for
this integration procedure. This shortcoming of the
model is eliminated by introducing a parallelized algor-
ithm for the solution of the first-order non-linear ODE
for the dynamic-stiffness matrix of the infinite region.
Following the substructure method CIFEM and standard
FE method are combined for large-scale SSI problems
and a computer program is developed. The CIFEM
based computer program, implemented in this study, is
validated by solving the example problems presented by
Wolf and Song [1], for elastic soil region. Then, CIFEM
is extended for viscoelastic material behaviour by introd-
ucing hysteretic damping. Following, the model is inves-
tigated under harmonic and transient loads. For the trans-
 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
formation between frequency and time space, Fast
Fourier Transformation (FFT) is used [20].
2. Combined SSI model
CIFEM, proposed by Wolf and Song, is based on the
calculation of the dynamic-stiffness matrix defined on
the truncated soil region, which extends to infinity. The
detailed formulation of this method is given in [1]. The
computer program, namely SIMILAR, is also available
to calculate only the dynamic-stiffness matrix on the
interface of the far and the near-field for elastic soil
media [1]. In this study, a computer code is established
by using the CIFEM for far-field and the FEM for near-
field and super-structure. CIFEM used in this study is
also extended to viscoelastic materials. Here, we will
discuss the basics of the method.
In this method, a discretized cell along the near- and
far-field interface is introduced (as in Fig. 1(b)) with its
interior boundary coinciding with the near-field and its
exterior boundary with the fictitious interface (see Fig.
1(b)). In the figure, O is the similarity centre [1], and ri
and re represent the characteristic length of interior and
exterior boundaries of the cell, respectively. Here, the
unbounded medium with the characteristic length ri is
to be analysed to calculate its dynamic-stiffness matrix.
Assembling the dynamic-stiffness matrix of the cell
(which is straightforwardly determined from its static-
stiffness and mass matrices) and the unknown dynamic-
stiffness matrix of the unbounded medium characterised
Fig. 1. Fundamental concept of FEM with the CIFEM (a) combined
SSI model (b) representation of CIFEM.
1121
by length re results in the unknown dynamic-stiffness
matrix of the unbounded medium with length ri. Through
the use of compatibility and equilibrium equations
between the cell and the bounded and the unbounded
regions, the relation between the dynamic-stiffness matr-
ices of the faces of the cell are obtained in frequency
space in terms of static-stiffness and mass matrices of
the cell. Then by taking the limit as cell width goes to
zero and using similarity, the formulation leads to a first-
order non-linear ODE for the dynamic-stiffness matrix
in the independent variable w as frequency (see Eq.
(A.2) in Appendix A).
Here, some features of the CIFEM are listed. The
method calculates dynamic-stiffness matrix for a discret-
ized region, which extends to infinity. It is a BE-like
method. However, it does not require a fundamental sol-
ution. It is based on the FE formulation and satisfies the
radiation condition at infinity while also decreasing the
spatial dimension of the problem by one as in BE. The
nodes on the interface coincide with those of the FE
mesh of the near-field. The dynamic-stiffness matrices
on the interface are calculated in a frequency interval
where the frequencies are automatically determined by
the solution algorithm, which will be discussed in Sec-
tion 3. The procedure is exact in the radial direction and
converges to the exact solution in the FE sense on the
circumferential directions. It is appealing to perform the
limit of the cell width analytically, which leads to the
consistent formulation.
In the combined SSI model the formulation of the
dynamic-stiffness matrix of the near-field and far-field
is derived in frequency domain. The near-field is discret-
ized by eight-node and twenty-node quadratic isopara-
metric elements, and the boundary between the structure
and the unbounded medium is discretized by three-node
and eight-node line and quadrilateral isoparametric
elements for 2D and 3D problems, respectively. Thus,
the compatibility of the displacements and equilibrium
of forces between the near-field and far-field are fully
satisfied. Static-stiffness and mass matrices pertaining to
above-mentioned finite elements are very well estab-
lished and can be found in standard FE books [21]. Here,
the general aspects of the model are discussed and well-
known formulations are not repeated. Once the dynamic-
stiffness matrix of the unbounded medium (S⬁) is calcu-
lated, it is then added to the near-field dynamic-stiffness
matrix, in frequency space, as given in Eq. (1)
冋册 冋
Fs
Fi
⫽
Sss Ssi
Sis Sii ⫹ S ⬁ 册冋 册Us
Ui
(1)
where S, F and U designate the dynamic-stiffness
matrix, force and displacement vectors, respectively. The
subscripts i and s in Eq. (1) designate the interface and
non-interface nodes of the FE mesh, and superscript ⬁
designates the far-field (infinite medium) as illustrated
1122 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
in Fig. 1(a). Here, it should be noted that the dynamic-
stiffness matrices of the finite region can be calculated
at discrete frequency values. For S⬁, however, which is
the dynamic-stiffness matrix of the infinite region, the
system of ODE given in Appendix A has to be solved.
In the formulations, material damping is introduced by
the use of correspondence principle by replacing the real
shear modulus (G) by the complex modulus (G(1 ⫹
2iz)), where, z is the hysteretic damping and ‘i’ is the
imaginary number.
In order to test the validity of the implemented pro-
gram, some example problems are solved to check the
correctness of S⬁. The results are compared with those
given by Wolf and Song [1] for elastic soil media .
Further, the combined SSI model, which is obtained by
adding a finite region and extending the CIFEM for vis-
coelastic soil region, is compared with other models in
the literature. The comparisons are presented in Sec-
tion 4.
3. Parallelized SSI model
The solution of Eq. (1) can be performed for the
required frequencies during the calculation of the
dynamic-stiffness matrix of the far-field (S⬁) via solving
the first-order non-linear ODE given in Appendix A. The
dynamic-stiffness matrix calculations of the far-field are
performed at a frequency interval starting from large ND
frequency values using a step-by-step method called
Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm [22,23]. Several 2D and 3D
problems are solved under harmonic and transient load-
ing using the computer program, and results are found
to match the existing ones in the literature as presented
in Section 4. However, the computation time statistics
taken from various examples demonstrated that the
majority of the time is spent for the calculation of S⬁.
For example, for the problem given in Section 4.5, 80%
of the computation time is spent for the calculation of
S⬁. This example required 24 h computation time on a
PENTIUM 2 400 MHz. processor. Because of this exten-
sive time requirement, parallel solution techniques are
sought.
Parallel algorithms are widely used in engineering
applications where there are large-scale or large-time-
requiring problems. Widely used parallel algorithms are
based on partitioning a computational mesh and then
assigning each partitioned mesh to a separate processor,
thus reaching a solution using processors concurrently
[24,25]. In this study, the time requiring process is the
Bulirsch–Stoer integration algorithm applied to the inter-
face region. Our time statistics demonstrated that the
time required for the solution of near-field at each fre-
quency step is relatively less than the far-field. There-
fore, in order to decrease the solution time, the inte-
gration algorithm, which is the main time requiring part
of the model, is parallelized for applications on concur-
rent systems [26].
Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm uses rational function for
extrapolation and yields more accurate results and faster
solutions for ODE. The advantages of the algorithm
were demonstrated in Bulirsch and Stoer [23] by com-
paring it with alternatives such as: Runge–Kutta, linear
multi-step method of Adams–Moulton–Bashforth and
extrapolation with polynomials. The Bulirsch–Stoer
algorithm self adjusts the step size and consists of six
extrapolations before reaching the next calculation step.
After performing six extrapolations, an automatic step
size correction is done, and the calculations for the next
step start.
For the parallel solution of the ODE given in Eq.
(A.2), a master–slave structure is used on multiple
instruction multiple data (MIMD) concurrent systems. In
the parallel algorithm, master processor partitions the
matrix into submatrices, and slave processors perform
the Bulirsch–Stoer calculations in parallel. Processors
are assigned to the same amount of work by the master
to avoid any delays due to unbalanced work. Therefore,
an extra dynamic load balancing process is automatically
eliminated. Each processor deals with a portion of the
resulting matrix (S⬁). In Fig. 2, a sample matrix par-
titioned into four sections is illustrated. To keep inter-
processor communication to a minimum, the calculated
matrices are updated only once at each step for the fol-
lowing step. Symmetry property of S⬁ is considered, and
the calculations are performed only for the upper portion
of the matrix. For message passing, Parallel Virtual
Machine (PVM) software is used and the program is
tested on WINDOWS and UNIX machines. The time
statistics pertaining to those problems are taken and stud-
ied in the following section.
4. Results and discussions
In this section, some example problems solved by the
present SSI model are presented and compared with
other methods from the literature, and parallel efficiency
of the model is discussed. As stated before, in the present
Fig. 2. Partitioned matrix for four processors.
 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131 1123

model infinite soil region is defined by line and surface

elements in 2D and 3D cases, respectively. In the
remainder, in the FE mesh figures, infinite regions,
which are calculated by CIFEM, are plotted separately
in order to demonstrate the interface between finite and
infinite regions. During the analysis, the matching nodes
of finite and infinite regions are automatically combined
by the program.

4.1. Circular cavity embedded in full-plane

To study the correctness of the developed code, in-

plane motion of circular cavity embedded in a full-plane
is considered (see Fig. 3). This problem is solved by
Wolf and Song [1] using SIMILAR for elastic soil
region. In order to validate the implementation of infinite
soil region, this problem is solved by the present code.
Due to symmetry, only one-quarter of the structure
medium interface is discretized with four three-node line
elements. In the comparisons, dynamic-stiffness coef-
ficients are used. The dynamic-stiffness coefficients are
calculated by
S⬁(w) ⫽ ⌿TS⬁(w)⌿ (2)
where ⌿ represents the rigid motion of the structure–
medium interface. The dynamic-stiffness coefficients are
represented as spring and damping coefficients as
S⬁(a0) ⫽ G(k(a0) ⫹ ia0c(a0)) (3)
The radius of the cavity is considered in ND form as Fig. 4. Dynamic-stiffness coefficient in frequency domain of circular
cavity embedded in full-plane. (a) Spring coefficients, (b) damping
r ⫽ 1. The material properties of the soil medium are coefficients.
given in ND form as: shear modulus G ⫽ 1, mass den-
sity r ⫽ 1, and Poisson’s ratio n ⫽ 1 / 3. First, the soil
material is taken as elastic, and the problem is solved
by the present code, SIMILAR and a BEM based code region. SIMILAR cannot consider material damping.
[27]. The spring and damping coefficients calculated by However, in this study CIFEM is extended to soils with
three codes for elastic soil region (0% damping ratio) material damping. Therefore, in order to compare the
are compared in Fig. 4. From the figures, one can see results of the present model for viscoelastic materials
that the present code and SIMILAR give the same only BEM results are given for 2, 5 and 10% damping
results. This validates the present code for infinite soil ratios in Fig. 4. Studying the figures, one can see that
the present model gives very close results to that of BEM
for various damping ratios.

4.2. Rigid strip foundation resting on a half-space

To study how far the cell representing the far-field

(infinite soil medium) would be located, a massless rigid
strip foundation of width 2B and thickness H on a half-
space is considered (see Fig. 5). Here, the near-field
(finite region) and the far-field (infinite region) material
properties are chosen to be the same. The constants
defining the soil material behaviour are as follows: the
Poisson’s ratio of the soil is taken as n ⫽ 0.25, in ND
form, the shear modulus and the mass density of the soil
are taken as Gs ⫽ 1 and rs ⫽ 1, respectively. ND com-
Fig. 3. Circular cavity embedded in full-plane. pliance values are studied, which are defined as
1124 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131

Fig. 6. Vertical compliances of the rigid strip foundation.

Fig. 5. FE meshes (a) 72 elements for near-field (b) 0 element for

near-field (only foundation is discretized).

C̄vv ⫽ πGsCvv, C̄hh ⫽ πGsChh, C̄rr ⫽ πGsBCrr

(4)
a0 ⫽ wB / cs
where cs is the shear wave velocity, a0 is the ND fre-
quency, and subscripts v, h and r designate vertical, hori-
zontal and rocking motions, respectively.
In order to study the effects of the truncation for the
far-field, the interface between near- and far-field is
located closer to the foundation by simply discarding
rows and columns of the FE mesh of near-field (see Fig.
5(a)). The final mesh, which is referred to as ‘only foun- Fig. 7. Horizontal compliances of the rigid strip foundation.
dation’ in the following diagrams, is illustrated in Fig.
5(b), which corresponds to the simplest mesh where the
finite soil region is not discretized, and only foundation Temel [29] in Figs. 6–8, respectively. In Ref. [29] infi-
and far-field are discretized. Here, it is interesting to note nite elements are defined to represent the infinite soil
that the mesh given in Fig. 5(b) is similar to FEBEM region, and the mesh used consists of 58 finite elements
meshes where only the surface of the soil region is and eight infinite elements for a circular mesh. The num-
discretized in BEM analyses. However, using the present ber of elements referred to in the diagrams represents
model the free soil surface is not discretized. This should
be discretized in BEM analyses within a reasonable dis-
tance until the truncation is done. This is a significant
advantage of CIFEM over BEM. Especially in 3D prob-
lems, by eliminating or decreasing the size of the free
soil surface, a significant amount of computational effort
is saved. In CIFEM the free soil surface that has to be
discretized can be eliminated or kept to a minimum,
which will be demonstrated in the following diagrams.
A total of six FE meshes are studied having 72, 50, 32,
18, 8 and 0 eight-node quadrilateral elements for finite
region and 24, 20, 16, 12, 8 and 4 three-node line
elements for the interface representing the far-field. The
ND vertical, horizontal and rocking compliance values
of the foundation obtained by the present model for vari-
ous meshes are compared with analytical solutions given
by Luco and Westman [28] and FE solutions given by Fig. 8. Rocking compliances of the rigid strip foundation.
 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
the number of finite elements used to model the finite
region for the present algorithm.
As can be seen from Fig. 6 the vertical compliance
distribution obtained by the present model illustrates a
good match with the others. It is interesting to note that
even the simplest mesh, which represents locating the
infinite soil region just underneath the foundation, gives
the compliance values at a reasonable approximation.
Studying the compliance values predicted by the present
model for different meshes, one can note that the finite
region can be kept at a minimum size. As it is seen in
Fig. 6, the results of meshes that have 72, 50, 32, 18
elements for near-field converged to eight elements. For
the sake of simplicity, they are not illustrated in the Figs.
7 and 8. The same observation is made for the horizontal
and rocking motions, except “only foundation” solutions
of the present model for horizontal and rocking did not
predict the infinite soil response as well as in vertical
case (see Figs. 7 and 8). Studying the figures, one can
see that for surface foundation problems, the present
model gives reasonable results with a small discretized
finite region. Here, it should be noted that the CIFEM
is very advantageous for embedded structures consider-
ing the similarity phenomenon [1]. Since, for embedded
structures the interface is located at a chosen distance
from the similarity centre. The advantages of the CIFEM
for embedded structures can be seen in Fig. 6 by
investigating the good match for large meshes, which
represents the interface for embedded structures.
4.3. Rigid strip foundation resting on a layered half-
space
A massless rigid strip foundation of width 2B on a
layered half-space is studied (see Fig. 9). The half-space
consists of two layers where the top layer has thickness
D( ⫽ 4B). The analyses are performed for two different
soil material ratios GL / Gs ⫽ 4 and GL / Gs ⫽ 0.25 where
Fig. 9. Horizontal impedances of rigid strip foundation on a layer for GL / Gs ⫽ 4.
1125
subscripts L and s represent layer and half-space,
respectively. In the analyses, the Poisson’s ratio for the
whole soil region is taken as n ⫽ 0.4, and the following
ND quantities are used: Gs ⫽ 1; rL ⫽ 1; rs ⫽ 1. For
this problem, a finite region between the soil surface and
the bottom of the top layer is defined where the FE mesh
is truncated at a 4B distance from the foundation. As a
special application in this particular problem, CIFEM is
used both for the half-space underneath the top soil layer
(extending to infinity in vertical direction) and for the
truncated regions of the top layer (extending to infinity
in horizontal) provided the related soil materials are
introduced.
The horizontal foundation impedance values, calcu-
lated by the present model, are compared with the BEM
solutions given by Tanrikulu [30] in Figs. 9 and 10 for
different soil properties. The impedance and frequency
values presented in the figures have the following ND
form
Shh wB
S̄hh ⫽ , a0 ⫽ (5)
GsB cs
From the figures, one can see that predictions of the
present model for the foundation impedance values are
in agreement with BEM values. This example is chosen
to demonstrate the applicability of the present model for
layered soils. Here, it should be noted that number of
soil layers can be increased provided that each soil layer
is defined by a finite region until the last layer extending
to infinity is reached.
4.4. Distributed transient strip load on an elastic half-
space
The effect of a uniform 2B width strip transient load
at the point A on the free soil surface which is 10B far
away from the centre of the load on an elastic half-space
is studied (see Fig. 11). The variation of the load with
1126 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131

Fig. 10. Horizontal impedances of rigid strip foundation on a layer for GL / Gs ⫽ 0.25.

Fig. 11. Distributed transient strip load on an elastic half-plane, geometry and loading.

respect to time is given in Fig. 11. The constants defining

the material behaviour are as follows: E ⫽ 330MPa,
n ⫽ 0.25 and r ⫽ 1.7857 × 103kg / m3. Due to sym-
metry, half of the problem is considered and the finite
region is modelled by using 72 eight-node quadrilateral
elements. The finite and infinite region interface is mod-
elled by using 18 three-node line elements.
FFT algorithm is used for the transformation between
frequency and time space. Since the frequency values
at which infinite soil responses are determined by the
Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm automatically, interpolation is
used for required values of Fourier parameters. Fig. 12
illustrates the results of the present model and Yerli et
al. [7], which is a study based on using the infinite
elements on the truncated region to represent the infinite Fig. 12. Vertical displacement at point A.
soil medium. As can be seen in Fig. 12 the present model
presents a good match with the model proposed by Yerli
et al. [7]. to study how far the truncated soil region should be
located, the size of the FE mesh given in Fig. 13(a) is
4.5. Rigid square foundation decreased as in Example 4.2. The final mesh is obtained
by introducing a single layer of soil, as presented in Fig.
A massless rigid square foundation of width 2B on a 13(b). Due to symmetry, only a quarter of the problem
layered half-space is considered. Similar to Example 4.2, is analysed, and a total of three meshes are considered
 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131 1127

Fig. 13. FE meshes (a) 27 elements for near-field (b) nine elements for near-field.

having 27, 18 and 9 twenty-node 3D solid finite elements

for the finite region and 27, 21 and 15 eight-node finite
elements for the interface.
To demonstrate the applicability of the present model
to various different problems, the following soil regions
are considered: (i) homogeneous, (ii) layered, and (iii)
top layer resting on a rigid bedrock.

(i) Homogeneous soil. In this case, the top layer has

a thickness of H ⫽ 3B and the bottom layer is
taken as half-space. The properties of the two lay-
ers are taken as identical with the following con-
stants: Gs ⫽ 24 × 109N / m2, ns ⫽ 1 / 3, rs ⫽
2400kg / m3. The compliance values of the foun-
dation calculated by the present model for various
meshes are compared with others in Figs. 14–16. Fig. 15. Horizontal compliances of the square rigid foundation.
In the diagrams the following ND compliance
definitions are used
C̄vv ⫽ GBCvv, C̄hh ⫽ GBChh, C̄rr ⫽ GB3Crr (6)
for vertical, horizontal and rocking compliances,
respectively. For comparison, the available data
are taken from different references. For vertical
compliance, BEM based solutions are taken from
Israil et al. [9] and infinite element based solutions

Fig. 16. Rocking compliances of the square rigid foundation.

are taken from Yerli [31]. For horizontal com-

pliance values, infinite element based model of
Yerli [31], and Hall–Lamp and Hall–Kitamura
point loading formulation based model by Chow
[32] are used. For rocking compliance, the results
given by Yerli [31] are used. As in Example 4.2,
Fig. 14. Vertical compliances of the square rigid foundation. the meshes studied presented close results (see
1128 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
Fig. 17. Vertical impedances of the square rigid foundation on a
layer.
Fig. 14), and for the sake of simplicity in Figs.
15 and 16, only nine element FE mesh results are
plotted. From the Figs. 14–16 one can see that the
present model demonstrates a good match with the
others. Similar to the example presented in Section
4.2, the advantage of the CIFEM for embedded
structures can also be seen here in Fig. 14 by
studying the good match between large mesh and
the others. Here, large mesh represents the inter-
face for embedded structures.
(ii) Layered soil. In this case, top layer has a thickness
of H ⫽ B. The Poisson’s ratio for the two layers
are taken as ns ⫽ 1 / 3, and the ND properties of
the two layers are taken as follows: GL ⫽ 1,
Gs ⫽ 1.766, rL ⫽ 1, rs ⫽ 1.13 where subscripts
L and s represent layer and half-space, respect-
ively. In the analyses, the FE mesh given in Fig.
13(a) is used for modelling the soil layer and the
impedance values of the foundation are compared
with the results given by Tanrikulu [11] in Figs.
17 and 18. The ND vertical and horizontal imped-
ances are given as follows:
Fig. 18. Horizontal impedances of the square rigid foundation on a
layer.
Svv Shh
S̄vv ⫽ , S̄hh ⫽ (7)
GsB GsB
In Figs. 17 and 18 the results predicted by the
present model are found to be in agreement with
the BEM results [11]. The BEM mesh used in [11]
consists of 256 constant quadrilateral elements at
the surface of the layer and 64 elements at the
interface between the layer and half-space for the
full problem.
(iii) Top layer resting on a rigid bedrock. The top soil
layer has the same properties with the one given
in Case (i) and it has a thickness of H ⫽ 2.5B.
Here, to represent the rigid bedrock, the bottom
soil layer is taken as rigid. This is accomplished
by simply restraining the nodes on that surface.
Here, to represent the soil layer, a finite region has
to be defined until the rigid bedrock is reached.
For this problem the FE mesh given in Fig. 13(a)
is chosen, and in Fig.19 the ND vertical com-
pliance values of the foundation are compared
with the infinite element results [31] and the BEM
results obtained by computer program of Ref. [27].
In the diagram ND compliance is calculated as in
Eq. (6). As can be seen from Fig. 19, the com-
pliance values of the present model are in agree-
ment with the others.
4.6. Parallel efficiency of the model
A parallel code for Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm is
developed for applications on distributed systems. In
order to investigate the efficiency of the parallel algor-
ithm, several test cases are studied. The studied cases
showed that the parallel algorithm is efficient and easy
to use. In this section, for the sake of simplicity, one
example problem is given. Three different example
meshes are chosen for structure–medium interface of
example problem given in Section 4.5, and timings of
Fig. 19. Vertical compliances of the square rigid foundation on a
layer resting on rigid bedrock.
 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
those meshes are taken on WINDOWS and UNIX sys-
tems. The number of eight-node plane elements at the
structure–medium interface are chosen as 27, 32 and 48
for meshes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Here, it should be
noted that the size of the dynamic-stiffness matrix to be
calculated by Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm increases with
the number of elements defined at the structure–medium
interface. In a study by Kocak and Akay [25] the direct
relation between the high performance parallel architec-
tures and the efficiency is presented. In that study, it is
also shown that as the problem gets larger, higher speed-
ups are achieved due to low communication costs. In
this study, the time statistics demonstrated similar results
to those of Kocak and Akay [25]. As UNIX based paral-
lel system performed better than WINDOWS, for larger
problems the efficiency results noted better performance.
In Fig. 20, the elapsed speedup diagrams of three
meshes, pertaining to UNIX based system, are plotted.
Here, it should be noted that the timings are not taken
at reserved times, which means the processors of the sys-
tem were also available to other users. In order to present
more reliable results, the same problem is solved several
times to reach to less-densely used system hours. As can
be seen from the diagram, for the largest mesh, due to
its being computation-bound, a maximum of ~6 speedup
is reached for a twelve processor case and a decrease
tendency starts after twelve processors. A similar obser-
vation is true for meshes 1 and 2 after eight processors
where they reach to their maximum efficiency. However,
here it should be noted that for mesh 3, ~83% compu-
tation time is saved by using twelve processors. This is
a significant amount of time.
5. Conclusions
A combined FE based SSI model is studied. In the
model, for infinite soil region CIFEM in frequency space
is used, and finite soil region is added on top. The model
is subjected to harmonic and transient loads. For transi-
Fig. 20. Speedup diagram for Bulirsch–Stoer algorithm.
1129
ent analyses FFT is used. Several example problems are
solved to validate and investigate the applicability of the
model. The results of the present model are compared
with the data in the literature, and a good match is noted.
By using the present model one can introduce a small
computational mesh for infinite soil region compared to
other Finite or Boundary Element based models. CIFEM
requires the solution of a first-order non-linear ODE for
the calculation of dynamic-stiffness matrix of the infinite
soil region. This differs from other FE or BE based
methods where the dynamic-stiffness matrices can be
calculated in discrete frequency values by simply introd-
ucing inertia forces. This results in the use of an inte-
gration algorithm, which is highly expensive in compu-
tation time. As a remedy to this problem, the integration
algorithm is parallelized for applications on concurrent
systems. Especially for large-scale problems, significant
computational time is saved, e.g. for a moderately large
problem 83% of total elapsed time is saved by using
twelve processors.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Dr Y. Mengi and Dr A.H.
Tanrikulu for their permission to use their BEM pro-
grams for comparisons.
Appendix A
By using the similarity [1], another similar fictitious
interface is defined by multiplying the coordinates of the
interface between near- and far-field according to simi-
larity centre O by a similarity factor (1 ⫹ w). The simi-
larity factor is defined by dividing the distance between
the similarity centre and the exterior (fictitious) bound-
ary by the distance between the similarity centre and
interior boundary.
In the CIFEM, the ND cell width measured in the
radial direction is assumed to be a very small number
(see Fig. 1). Therefore, the relation between the
dynamic-stiffness matrices of the interior and exterior
boundaries will yield a limit with ND cell width (w).
This results in a derivative of the dynamic-stiffness
matrix of the unbounded medium with the characteristic
length r of the interior boundary according to similarity
centre. This derivative of the dynamic-stiffness matrix
according to r can be altered with the derivative of the
dynamic-stiffness matrix according to frequency w based
on similarity in frequency domain [1] as given in Eq.
(A.1)
rS⬁(w),r ⫽ (s⫺2)S⬁(w) ⫹ wS⬁(w),w (A.1)
⬁
where, S (w) is the dynamic-stiffness matrix of the
unbounded medium and s is the spatial dimension (=2
1130 M.C. Genes, S. Kocak / Engineering Structures 24 (2002) 1119–1131
or 3). This represents the dynamic-stiffness matrix of the
unbounded medium as a function of frequency w, and
results in a system of non-linear ODE of first-order in
the independent variable w
(S⬁(w) ⫹ E1) (E0)⫺1(S⬁(w) ⫹ (E1)T)⫺(s (A.2)
⫺2)S⬁(w)⫺wS⬁(w),w⫺E2 ⫹ w2M0 ⫽ 0
where, E0, E1, E2 represent the static-stiffness matrices
and M0 represents the mass matrix of the interior surface
of the cell [1].
The solution of the system of non-linear ODE given
in Eq. (A.2) can be performed by using Bulirsch–Stoer
method [22,23], which is a powerful and efficient inte-
gration algorithm. For the solution of the differential
equation by Bulirsch–Stoer method, the initial starting
dynamic-stiffness matrix of the interface must be known.
In order to propose an acceptable solution, the boundary
condition must satisfy the radiation condition in fre-
quency domain, and yet the static-stiffness matrix cannot
satisfy the radiation condition explicitly. The radiation
condition must be formulated at an infinite distance from
the interface, which corresponds to an infinite character-
istic length r. However, by introducing the associated
ND frequency a0 ⫽ wr / cs, infinite ND frequency can
also be achieved by an infinite w instead of an infinite
r. In an actual calculation, the dynamic-stiffness matrix
to be used in Eq.(A.2) can be calculated by choosing a
large w. Thus, the high-frequency behaviour of S⬁ is
studied examining the asymptotic expansion of the dif-
ferential equation given in Eq. (A.3)
冘
m a primer: solution procedures. Comput Struct 2000;78:211–25.
1
S⬁(w)⬇iwC⬁ ⫹ K⬁ ⫹ j Aj (A.3)
j⫽1
(iw)
where C⬁, K⬁ and Aj represent dashpot matrix, spring
matrix and unknown coefficient matrices of the asymp-
totic expansion, respectively. m in Eq.(A.3) represents
the number of terms to be considered in the analysis,
and i is the imaginary number. The details of the calcu-
lation of S⬁can be found in Ref. [1]. Once S⬁ at a high
a0 (ND frequency) is calculated, it remains to solve Eq.
(A.2) by Bulirsch–Stoer integration.
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