ABSTRACT
Nowadays, in order to improve interaction some new applications have been recently released. Those are able to connect the geotechnical software to the structural software, sharing loads and movements through an interface tool. The main value of this tool is to analyze the interaction soil-structure on the fly.
This paper presents this coupling methodology analyzing the foundation of a 52 m diameter and 50 m height storage structure with shallow foundation over underlying stiff clayey sand layers. The importance of the decision making about the mechanical behavior of soils has been highlighted when comparing final displacement of the structure using different soil models: non-linear plastic Hardening soils, linear elastic-plastic Mohr-Coulomb and the traditional linear elastic springs. This fact has in turn influence about the efficiency of the solution as well as assessing a model as close to the actual situation as possible where the use of springs has resulted to be conservative.
