Coupled lateral-rocking impedances of adjacent rigid strip foundations rested on elastic half-space

The coupled lateral-rocking impedances between adjacent strip foundations are studied based on the elastic half-space theory. The interface between the foundations and the supporting medium is divided into a number of strip elements. Green functions of the elastic soil medium under lateral and vertical harmonic uniform excitation with infinite length are derived to establish the dynamic-flexibility matric for those strip elements. The coupled lateral-rocking impedances between soil and adjacent strip foundations are solved by adding the bending moments and the contact forces on each element, based on the fact that displacements of each element are determined by those of the rigid foundations. The accuracy is verified by the convergence and comparison studies with numerical solutions and the rigorous solution from mix-boundary-value method. The influences of the distance ratio S/L on the lateral-rocking interaction between two foundations are discussed in detail. It is shown that the lateral-rocking interaction between adjacent strip foundations should be taken into consideration when S/L less than 5.0.