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International J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 3, No. 5, May 2010

Free Vibration Analysis of Structure-Raft-Soil

System on Homogeneous Media
Kumar Venkatesh
Department of Civil Engineering, MNNIT, Allahabad, India
Email: venkatesh@mnnit.ac.in

Abstract - The 3D finite element method is applied to treat
the free vibration analysis of pier-raft of a barrage
supported on elastic homogeneous foundations. A typical
barrage bays have been put into the free vibration analysis
investigations. Eight noded brick elements have been used
for meshing the soil, cut-off, pier, beam and abutment but
raft floor has been modeled using shell element. Relevant
amount of soil around and bottom of the barrage raft has
been modeled to predict natural frequencies and mode
shapes of the complete system by assuming linear behavior
of soil. The effect of variations in elastic modulus of soil on
A detailed discussion on the finite element method is
beyond the scope of this paper but well documented in
standard literatures [3,4].
III. FREE VIBRATION
This analysis type is used for natural frequency and
mode shape determination of the system. The equation of
motion for an undamped system [5], expressed in matrix
notation is

natural frequencies of system has also been investigated,

[M]u+[K]{u}={}0
which showed the significant variation.

Index Termsfree vibration, finite element method, (1)

homogenous soil

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the hydraulic and structural engineers

are seized upon the important task of evolving safe and Where, M = Mass of system
economic design criteria for the barrage raft due to K = Stiffness of the system
several advantages such as less excavation and & = Acceleration induces in system
u&
dewatering, lesser construction time, superior flexural u = Displacement induced in system
behaviour etc. For a linear system, free vibrations will be harmonic of
Dynamic analysis of a barrage is an important part of the form
structural investigation and the results of free vibration Thus, equation (1) becomes
analysis are useful in this context. The natural frequency
of vibration and associated mode shapes is useful in
vibration isolation of a barrage and indicator of ( i
2
[M ]+ [K ] ){}i = {0} (2)
anticipated dynamic response. Recently Sasidhar [1] have
This equality is satisfied if either { }i = {0 } or if the
analysed the barrages using finite element method. A

( )
comparative analysis of a barrage raft floor has been
carried out, using Hetenyis and finite element method by determinant of [K ] [M ] is zero. The first
2

Venkatesh et al [2] on varying foundation media under option is the trivial one and, therefore, is not of interest.
static load. In the present study three-dimensional finite Thus, the second one gives the solution
element method has been employed for carrying out the
free vibration analysis, which forms an important aspect [K ] 2
[M ] = 0 (3)
in the total investigation of the pier-raft of barrage resting
on foundation soil.
This is an eigen value problem which may be solved for
up to n values of and n eigen vectors { }i where n
2
II. FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
is the number of DOFs. The natural circular frequencies
( ) are then converted into the natural frequencies (f)
The finite element method is a numerical procedure for
analyzing structures and continua. It is a powerful tool in
as
structural analysis of simple to complicated geometries.
In the recent years with the advent of compact and
powerful computers, the analyses performed by finite i
fi = (4)
element method have become more acceptable. Three 2
dimensional finite element programs have been employed
in the present study. Where; fi = ith natural frequency (cycles per unit time)

Academy Publisher, Finland, 93, Kumar Venkatesh

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2010 ACEE
DOI: 01.IJRTET.03.05.93
FULL PAPER
International J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 3, No. 5, May 2010
Mode Extraction Techniques
The basic equation solved in a typical undamped modal
analysis is the classical eigen value problem.
[K ]{ i } = i 2 [M ]{ i }
Where; [K ] = stiffness matrix
{ i }= mode shape vector
i = natural circular frequency of mode i
[M ] = mass matrix
In the present work subspace method has been used for
extracting the modes due to its versatility and accuracy.
IV. IDEALIZATION OF BAYS
A barrage with raft-pier resting on foundation soil has
been considered for the purpose free vibration analysis by
finite element method. The barrage bay 1 and bay 2 has
been adopted for analysis. A typical transverse section of
the bay 1 and bay 2 is as shown in Fig. 1.
Pier
BAY 2 BAY 1
Raft
Soil
Expansion joint
Cut-off
Figure 1. Transverse section of barrage bay 1-2
The barrage raft floor with cut-off along with abutment
wall, single pier and double pier of bay 1 and 2 are
completely resting on alluvial soil. The abutment wall has
been provided to retain the abutment soil up to its full
height.
An attempt has been made to predict natural frequency
and mode shape of barrage bay 1-2 for elastic modulus of
soil. It has been assumed that within the entire soil mass,
elastic modulus and Poissons ratio remain the same.
Instead of soil mass only stiffness of the soil is
considered as inclusion of mass of the foundation soil
will yield the dominant modes of foundation system than
structural system. Analysis has been carried out with
values of modulus of elasticity, Es of soil taken as 25000
kN/m2, 50000 kN/m2, 100000 kN/m2 and 200000 kN/m2
for constant Poissons ratio 0.3.
A. Physical Modeling
Eight noded isoparametric brick elements have been
used for the three-dimensional modeling of soil media
[6]. The cut-off, pier, abutment wall and beam have been
also modeled using eight noded isoparametric brick
elements. The four noded three-dimensional
isoparametric shell elements have been used for barrage
raft floor modeling to simulate the behaviour of barrage
2010 ACEE
DOI: 01.IJRTET.03.05.93
raft floor as plate bending element [6]. In this model the
depth of the soil media considered is 80m from the crest
level. The extent of surrounding soil up to 35m on both
(5)
sides of the transverse section of the raft and 50m on both
in upstream and downstream side equivalent to the length
of the raft floor along the flow has been considered.
Several iterations were made for refining the mesh of the
models from coarser to finer till the values of stresses at
the same section under study in the two consecutive
models converged. The complete discretised model with
soil has been shown in Fig. 2. The material properties of
other components except foundation soil are as shown in
Table 1.
The boundary conditions imposed on the finite element
model are such that the base of the foundation soil media
at the depth of 80 m is restrained against vertical
displacement and the horizontal ends of foundation soil
media along and across the direction of flow are
restrained against the horizontal displacement.
Figure 2. 3D-Finite element model of bay 1-2 with pier, raft and
foundation soil
TABLE I
MATERIAL PROPERTIES FOR BAY 1-2
Sl. Description Material Properties
No.
1 Pier/Abutment Modulus of Elasticity = 2.5 x 107 kN/ m2
Unit Weight () = 25 kN/m3
Poissons Ratio () = 0.15
2 Raft Floor Modulus of Elasticity = 2.5 x 107 kN/ m2
Unit Weight () = 25 kN/m3
Poissons Ratio () = 0.16
3 Cut-off Modulus of Elasticity = 2.4 x 107 kN/ m2
Unit Weight () = 25 kN/m3
Poissons Ratio () = 0.18
B. Type of Loading
No external load is applied for free vibration analysis
as the natural frequency and mode shape depends up on
the mass and stiffness of the system. Only one conditions
has been inducted i.e dry condition (no-flow).
C. Methodology
Except properties of soil all the material properties
remained constant and possessed linear behavior. For
each material properties of the soil, considering dry and
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International J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 3, No. 5, May 2010

wet conditions, free vibration analysis of bay 1-2 have Figure 4a. Mode shape 1 of bay 1-2
been carried out, which involves determination of natural
frequency and mode shape of the whole system. The first
ten modes were considered for analysis as maximum
mass participate occur in the first few modes only, which
gives the modal behaviour of the system.

V. BEHAVIOUR OF BARRAGE BAY 1-2

A. Influence of modulus of elasticity of soil

The trend of natural frequencies obtained with respect
to mode number, is almost similar irrespective of the
variation of modulus of elasticity of soil, though results
have been presented here for dry condition in Fig. 3. It Figure 4b. Mode shape 6 of bay 1-2
shows that with the increase in modulus of elasticity of
soil natural frequency of the system also increases, it
employees that stiffness of the soil media affects the
natural frequencies of the barrage-foundation system. It
may also be observed that natural frequencies obtained
for different elastic modulus values are well separated in
the first few modes.
B. Mode shapes of Bay 1-2 Figure 4c. Mode shape 10 of bay 1-2

The first ten mode shapes have been extracted for each
combination of elastic modulus. The mode shapes
irrespective of change in elastic modulus were almost
identical in configuration. Therefore, few significant
mode shapes of only one case is being presented in Figs.
4a to 4c having modulus of elasticity of soil 100000
kN/m2 for dry condition.
3.5
3
2.5
Frequency(Hz)
CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of the free vibration analysis carried out
in the present study leads to following significant
observations:
The variation of modulus of elasticity of soil plays a
significant role in influencing natural frequency of
the system.
The stiffer soil leading to higher frequencies for
each considered mode in general.
Neglecting mass of foundation soil yields the
dominant structural modes of barrage.

1.5 REFERENCES
1
Es = 25000 kPa
[1] T. Sasidhar, 3-D Finite Element Analysis of a Barrage. M.
Es = 50000 kPa Tech. Dissertation, Department of Earthquake Engineering,
0.5
Es= 100000 kPa IIT Roorkee, 2002.
Es= 200000 kPa
0 [2] K. Venkatesh, A.D. Pandey and N.K. Samadhiya,
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Comparative analysis of raft foundation for a barrage in
Mode Number India Proc. International Conference on Geotechnical
Engineering, Sharjah UAE, pp.468-473, October 2005.
Figure 3. Frequency Vs mode number for bay 1-2 for dry condition [3] C.S. Desai and J.F. Abel, Introduction to the Finite Element
considering variation of elastic modulus of soil Method. CBS Publisher and Distributors, New Delhi, 2000.
[4] C.S. Krishnamoorthy, Finite Element Analysis, Theory and
Programming. Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company
Limited, New Delhi, 2002.
[5] A.K. chopra, Dynamics of structures, theory and
application to earthquake engineering. Pearson Education
(Singapore) Pte. Ltd.2003.
[6] G.J.W. King, An introduction to superstructure/ raft/soil
interaction, Int. symposium on soil-structure interaction,
University of Roorkee, India, pp. 453-466, 1977.

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