Simplified Soil–Structure Interaction Analysis for High-Tech Industrial Buildings Subjected to Forced Vibrations

To implement a safe and reliable design for high-tech industrial buildings, the system response should be accurate enough to include the effect of soil–structure interaction (SSI). This study proposed a simplified building–soil system to analyze the dynamic responses, using parameters that are representative of the practical design values for typical semiconductor fab structures in Taiwan. The responses of the simplified building–soil system subjected to dynamic horizontal loadings are verified in the frequency domain and time domain. The dynamic responses of the simplified building–soil system are found to agree very well with those of the complete system obtained by the half-space theory and by the numerical analysis program. It is shown that the proposed simplified system can effectively analyze the coupled SSI effects in the translational and rotational directions. It is also found that the structural responses may deviate significantly by neglecting the coupling of horizontal and rocking motions as the building has a deeper embedded foundation and a stiffer upper structure. The proposed method can be applied to the vibration analysis of high-tech industrial buildings subjected to dynamic loadings.