Three‐dimensional nonlinear soil–structure interaction for Rayleigh wave incidence in layered soils

Abstract We propose a methodology to analyze three‐dimensional (3D) nonlinear soil–structure interaction (SSI) problems for Rayleigh (R) wave incidence in horizontally layered soils. The methodology comprises of two steps: (i) we calculate the free‐field displacement histories of the layered soil subjected to incident R wave using thin‐layer method (TLM) and (ii) we compute the effective input forces using domain reduction method (DRM) and simulate the responses of the structure and its vicinity using finite element analysis. Through a comprehensive verification study, we find good agreement with published research on SSI problems that implement boundary elements in the free‐field; as well as on layered media problems with no structures that implement the propagator matrix technique and TLM. The agreement is consistently good for homogeneous and layered soils in 2D and 3D. Finally, we illustrate the capability of the methodology through a nonlinear analysis of a 12‐story building on a two‐layer soil overlaying a homogeneous halfspace, subjected to R wave incidence. The presented example highlights the influence of incident wave azimuth on measures of the building response, such as peak acceleration, inter‐story drift ratio, and rocking motions.