Shaking Table Testing of a Shallow Foundation Model

Shaking Table Testing of a Shallow Foundation Model

In recent years, the foundation rocking mechanism was adopted in seismic design to isolate seismic waves for reducing the seismic demand. In this study, shaking table testing of a rocking-dominated column-footing model was performed to investigate the rocking effect on the dynamic behavior of the structure of this type under seismic loading. The model was a column of height of 80cm with a square footing of size 40cm×40cm. Vietnam sand was adopted for the soil specimen. Specific sinusoidal waves were adopted for input motions. From the preliminary results of the testing, the rocking response of the footing could help reduce the dynamic amplification effect of the model. For the model under a small excitation, its acceleration response could be amplified, while upon the application of a larger excitation, its acceleration response was limited by the rotational capacity of the footing. However, too large seismic loading would trigger foundation failure, such as foundation twisting.