A simple analysis of soil-structure interaction by BEM-FEM coupling

The present paper analyses some particular features of the boundary element method applied to the elastic half-space, which are derived from the choice of a suitable fundamental solution and appropriate discretization. In this way it is possible to get a symmetric and positive definite matrix, which enables a very simple coupling of BEM-FEM procedures.

A way of modelling and solving the classic soil-structure interaction problem, based on coupling Somigliana's equation in discretized form for the elastic half-space with the system which comes from the finite elements treatment of structure, will be developed.

This technique in soil-structure analysis appears interesting because it gives rise to a real simplification of the problem and allows the taking into account of the elastic soil deformability in the structural responses evaluation.