Assessment of Seismic Responses of Square-Hollow-Section Joints in a Lattice Girder with Soil-Structure Interaction

The fixed base approach is widely used to obtain the seismic behaviour of Square Hollow Section (SHS) joints in a lattice girder. However, in some cases where soil-structure interaction (SSI) can be relatively significant, this approach may result in incorrect acquisition of the natural periods and dynamic responses of the lattice girders using welded tubular joints. This situation may negatively affect the safety of the structure by causing an underestimation of the dynamic loads acting on the structure. Therefore, this study evaluates the seismic behaviour of SHS joints in a typical lattice girder exposed to different ground motions considering SSI. A nonlinear finite element analysis software, Abaqus, performs the dynamic analyses considering six earthquake excitations with three different frequency contents (a ratio of peak ground acceleration (PGA) to peak ground velocity (PGV)) and four different soil types. After verifying the numerical model, it is determined that 3D solid elements should be used to capture the actual seismic behaviour of the tubular joints in a steel truss frame with or without SSI. A comprehensive parametric study is then carried out to evaluate the peak displacement and stress values on the SHS joints with and without SSI under different ground motions with different PGA/PGV ratios. The findings show that the stresses are concentrated around the column and bottom chord connection region. Besides, the SSI mechanism significantly affects the peak stress and displacement values of the SHS joints, especially in soft soil types. Furthermore, it is observed that the PGA/PGV ratio significantly changes the seismic responses of the steel truss frame.