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Analysis of Machine Foundation Surrounded by

Diaphragm Wall Using OpenSees Program
Ahmed Sameer Abdulrasool

Abstract— Machine foundations require special attention of a Several methods used to decrease the displacements of
foundation engineer. In some cases, if changes in size of the foundation have been proposed. One of these methods is used
foundation and mass do not lead to a satisfactory design, a diaphragm walls.
machine foundation surrounded by diaphragm walls may be used.
Diaphragm walls provide rigid, cost effective solutions for
The Finite element method is one of the most popular numerical
methods used for obtaining an approximate solution for complex
permanent retaining walls and shafts, with less construction
problems in various fields of engineering. joints than bored pile walls. Compared to other wall types,
In this paper, 3D finite element model is used to investigate diaphragm walls are considered to be very stiff with respect to
displacement response and acceleration of machine foundation to ground movement control [8].
resting on cohesionless soils and surrounded by diaphragm walls. In general, solving this problem by classical analytical
The effective distance of diaphragm wall to width foundation, on methods is very difficult. The finite element method (FEM) is
the displacement response of machine foundation is calculated. a numerical approach by which these partial differential
Many tests are conducted to determine vertical and horizontal equations can be solved approximately. This paper examines
displacement and acceleration of machine foundation surrounded the effect of diaphragm walls on machine foundations using
by diaphragm wall within different diaphragm walls depth (D/B)
3D finite element modeling by Open System for Earthquake
ratio (diaphragm walls depth to foundation width) ranged
between (0.0-3.0). The analysis of machine foundation is Engineering Simulation (OpenSees). The program is using a
performed for foundation rests on finite isotropic elastic Tool command language (Tcl). This program is originally
homogenous soil. The results indicate that, the dynamic response produced by University of California. The mandal and
(displacement and acceleration) generally decreases with Roychowdhury [14] presented the central response of the
increasing of diaphragm walls depth .In addition, the increase in square raft under the step loading of 100 kN for different depth
distances between diaphragm wall and width of foundation will to width ratios. It was observed that the increase in the depth
lead to decrease in the vertical displacement and vertical of embedment yields response of lesser amplitude and higher
acceleration, but the horizontal displacement and horizontal frequency.
acceleration will be increased in same case. The maximum
Makhmalbaf et al. [13] considered two cases to investigate the
amplitude of displacement and acceleration of foundation under
dynamic loads can be occurred in loose sand in comparison with effect of foundation embedment. First, the structure was
the other types of sand. considered as a model with surface foundation (i.e., without
Index Terms— dynamic analysis; finite element method; embedment) which was influenced by the excitation with
diaphragm wall; machine foundation surrounded by diaphragm different frequencies and then foundation was considered as
wall; skirted foundation, send a blank e-mail to completely embedded. In the second case, just the foundation
ahmeedsameerabd@gmail.com was embedded in the soil. It was concluded that the foundation
embedment is a positive feature, because it can decrease the
roof displacements in all frequencies of incident motion and
I. INTRODUCTION also have a similar behavior in lower frequencies for
displacements beneath the foundation. In higher excitation
M achine foundations are one of the most important
features of industrial structures. Industrial facilities like
power plants, steel plants, petrochemical complexes, fertilizer
frequencies, embedding the foundation increase the
displacements. This reveals that the filtering effect of SSI is
plants etc., consist of a number of centrifugal and reciprocating not resulted from foundation embedment and therefore it is
machines and these play an important role to ensure smooth influenced by other factors of kinematic interaction.
operation of the process and that the output product is of right
quality. If any of these equipments starts malfunctioning or II. FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
breaks down due to excessive vibration or settlement of the The finite element method is used to solve the physical
foundations, cascading effect on the overall performance on problems. The general formulations of the finite element
engineering could be catastrophic at times [7]. method consist of [6]:

Ahmed Sameer Abdulrasool is with Building and Construction

Engineering Department, University of Technology, Bagdad, Iraq
(e-mail: ahmeedsameerabd@gmail.com).


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I. Element Discretization, TABLE I I

MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE FOUNDATION
II. Primary variable approximation
III. Formulation of element equations, PROPERTIES VALUE UNITS

IV. Assembly of the global equation, and Young’s modulus 29725410 kN/m2
V. Solution of the global equations.
PoiVVRQ¶VUDWLRȣ 0.2 -
The equations of equilibrium governing the linear dynamic
response of a system of finite elements can be expressed as compression strength of 40 Mpa
[4]: concrete (ƒcƍ
[M] +[C]. +[K]. =R 1
Unit weight of concrete 24 kN/m3
where: [M] = mass matrix,
[C] = damping matrix, TABLE I I I
[K] = stiffness matrix, MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE DIAPHRAGM WALLS
R = vector of loads, PROPERTIES VALUE UNITS
= vector of nodal accelerations,
Young’s modulus 27405473 kN/m2
= vector of nodal velocities, and
= vector of nodal displacements. 3RLVVRQ¶VUDWLRȣ 0.2 -

III. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM compression strength of 34 Mpa

concrete (ƒcƍ
The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of
diaphragm wall depth to width ratio on the dynamic response Unit weight of concrete 24 kN/m3
of foundation, In addition to the distance between diaphragm
walls.
The soil profile consists of a dry sand stratum at a depth of 65
m from the ground surface. The problem represents a IV. THREE-DIMENSIONAL DYNAMIC ANALYSES OF
homogeneous layer of a natural deposit over bedrock. The FOUNDATIONS
properties of the soil are considered to be uniform throughout
For some problems, it is necessary to perform three-
the depth of the layer which is a common assumption in soil
dimensional analysis. Finite element method is found to be an
dynamics. The analysis of machine foundation is performed
effective numerical technique to perform this type of analysis
for foundation rests on finite isotropic elastic homogenous soil
[17]. Such problems may include machine foundations resting
as the machines may cause only small amplitudes of
on soil. Machine foundations are usually rectangular in shape
vibrations.
and in some cases where the ratio of the length to width is
The value of Poisson's ratio and values for the static stress-
more than six; a two dimensional idealization of the actual
strain modulus, E S are adopted from (Das [10]).The properties
situation is made [11].
of soil are listed in Table 1.
Three-dimensional finite element model of 8-noded brick
TABLE I elements are used in the dynamic analysis. The brick element
PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL has eight nodes at the corners with three degrees of freedom at
each node; the first, second and third degrees of freedom are
PROPERTIES VALUE UNITS
for displacements and acceleration. The elementary boundaries
Modulus of elasticity, E 26000 kN/m2 with conditions of zero-displacement are used at the boundary.
The boundary conditions are applied so that, the bottom of the
3RLVVRQ¶VUDWLRȣ 0.28 - soil is assumed to be fixed and the constraint on displacement
in X and Y directions is applied on the nodes at the boundary
Unit weight of dry sand, ܵ 16 kN/m3
in Y-Z and X-Z planes, respectively. The three- dimensional
finite element model and a cross-section in the model are
shown in Figs 1 and 2, respectively. The foundation is
subjected to a steady state load of sinusoidal function of the
The geometry consists of flexible square foundation of
form F  )R VLQ ȦW  ZLWK DPSOLWXGH RI IRUFH  N1 DQG
dimensions 5m x 5m x 0.4m founded on the ground surface of
FLUFXODUIUHTXHQF\ȦRIUDGVHF,WVKRXOGEHQRWHGWKDW
dry sand. The Code of Practice for Foundation [9], recommend
in this analysis, a vertical vibration is applied and the
that the diaphragm wall should not be less than 0.6 m width displacements and acceleration are measured at the top central
.So, the diaphragm wall width is taken 0.6 m. point of the foundation (node A in Fig 1). It is important to
The concrete foundation is assumed as a linear elastic material mention here that all cases are analyzed for duration of
with parameters shown in Table 2, and diaphragm wall  VHF  ZLWK WLPH VWHS WDNHQ DV ǻW   VHF  7KH
properties are shown in and Table 3. program uses the finite element method. The time integration
is done with the generalized Newmark method [12].


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V. RESULTS OF TESTS

THE EFFECTIVE DIAPHRAGM WALL DEPTH ON MACHINE

FOUNDATION
In this section, the test is carried out to assess the effect of
existence of wall at different depth. The diaphragm walls depth
to foundation width (D/B) ratio are considered (0.5, 1, 2, and
3). The diaphragm wall depths are shown in Table 4. The
dynamic response of machine foundations is also measured
without diaphragm wall. The diaphragm wall width for all
cases in this application is constant (0.6 m) and the distances
between diaphragm wall and width of foundation are
considered equal 0 m. The results of the vertical and
horizontal displacement and acceleration of machine
foundation are shown in Fig 3.
Fig. 1 Three-dimensional finite element model.

TABLE I V.
THE DIAPHRAGM WALLS DEPTH TO FOUNDATION WIDTH

Diaphragm walls depth Foundation width D/B

2.5 5 0.5

5 5 1

10 5 2

15 5 3

Fig. 2 Cross-section A-A two-dimensional model.

A B

C D

Fig 3. Predicted displacement and acceleration at point A on foundation with different diaphragm wall depth :( A) vertical displacement ; (B) horizontal
displacement; (C) vertical acceleration ; (D) horizontal acceleration.


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From Fig 3, it can be noted that maximum displacement and EFFECT OF DISTANCES BETWEEN DIAPHRAGM WALL
acceleration can be occurred in foundation without diaphragm AND WIDTH OF FOUNDATION
wall. The displacement and acceleration will be decreased with This study is carried out to assess the effect of existence of
the increase in depth of the wall due to an increase confined wall at different distances. The distances between diaphragm
soil underneath the foundation. This means that the stiffness is wall and width of foundation are considered (0m, 0.6m, 1.2m,
increased. In addition, the walls are start to increases the and 1.8m). The diaphragm wall width for all cases in this
resistance of lateral displacement of soil particles. The application is constant (0.6m) and the diaphragm walls depth
maximum displacement responses and acceleration of the to foundation width (D/B) is 2 for all cases. The soil
machine foundation due to change of wall depth are shown in properties and the properties of concrete and the dynamic load
Table 5. which is applied at the surface of the foundation have been
explained in the description of the problem. The results of the
TABLE V displacement and acceleration response are shown in
MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE DIAPHRAGM WALLS
Displacement (mm) Acceleration (mm/sec2)
Fig 4.
(D/B) From Fig (4-A) and (4-B), It is obvious that the vertical
Vertical Horizontal Vertical Horizontal
0 0.0375 0.0025 2.32 0.08 displacement and acceleration will be decreased with the
increasing the distances between diaphragm wall and width of
0.5 0.0158 0.0022 0.92 0.07 foundation under the same applied loads, where the increase in
distances, this leads to the amount of soil under foundation is
1 0.0103 0.0020 0.61 0.06
increased, this lead to increase absorb impinging waves, which
2 0.0060 0.0014 results in decrease in vertical displacement and acceleration in
0.37 0.04
the foundation.
3 0.0040 0.0007
But From Fig (4-C) and (4-D), it can be seen that, when the
0.23 0.02
distances between wall and foundation decrease this will lead
to decrease in the amplitude of horizontal displacement and
acceleration due to the wall penetrate the soil vertically and
thus constrain its lateral movement beneath the foundation.

A B

C D

Fig 4. Predicted displacement and acceleration at point A on foundation with different distances between diaphragm wall :( A) vertical displacement ;
(B) horizontal displacement; (C) vertical acceleration ; (D) horizontal acceleration.


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The maximum results of displacement responses and TABLE VII

acceleration of the machine foundation due to change of PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL
distances between diaphragm wall and width of foundation are Medium
Material Properties Loose sand Dense sand
shown in Table 6. sand
Modulus of elasticity, E 19000 26000 36000
TABLE VI (kN/m2)
MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE DIAPHRAGM WALLS 3RLVVRQ¶VUDWLRȣ 0.31 0.28 0.26
8QLWZHLJKWRIGU\VDQGܵ 14 16 18
distances between 2
displacement (mm) acceleration (mm/sec ) (kN/m3)
diaphragm wall
and width of vertical horizontal vertical horizontal
foundation From Fig 5, it can be seen that the maximum amplitude of
0 0.0060 0.0014 0.377 0.041
displacement of pile foundation under dynamic loads occurred
0.6 0.0052 0.0028 0.333 0.077 in the case of loose sand. This behavior can be attributing to
the reduction in the stiffness of loose sand representative by
1.2 0.0048 0.0036 0.297 0.124 the reduction in modulus of elasticity.
The maximum results of displacement responses and
1.8 0.0045 0.0049 0.267 0.195 acceleration of the machine foundation due to change of soil
Types are shown in Table 8.

EFFECT OF SOIL PROPERTIES ON MACHINE TABLE VIII

FOUNDATION THE MAXIMUM RESULTS OF DISPLACEMENT RESPONSES AND ACCELERATION
OF THE MACHINE FOUNDATION
Three states of sandy soil are used in this parametric study
Displacement (mm) Acceleration (mm/sec2)
which are: loose, medium and dense sand, with parameters Type of soil
vertical horizontal vertical horizontal
adopted from Das [10]. The parameters of each type of soil are Loose sand 0.0071 0.00167 0.451 0.053
shown in Table 7. The diaphragm wall width for all cases in
this application is constant (0.6 m). The diaphragm walls depth Medium sand 0.0060 0.0014 0.377 0.041

to foundation width (D/B) is 2 for all cases and the distances

between diaphragm wall and width of foundation are Dense sand 0.0047 0.00089 0.315 0.031

considered equal 0 m. The dynamic response of the foundation

is shown in Fig 5.

A B

D
C

Fig 5. Predicted displacement and acceleration at point A on foundation with different soil properties :( A) vertical displacement; (B) horizontal displacement;
(C) vertical acceleration ; (D) horizontal acceleration.


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VI. CONCLUSIONS [13] Makhmalbaf, M. O., Alitalesh, M., Samani, M. Z., and Tutunchian, M.
A, “Parametric Study on Displacements of Buildings Considering the
1. Diaphragm wall will be lead to increase the stiffness of the
Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction Effects,” Electronic Journal of
foundation-soil system due to constrain its vertical and lateral Geotechnical Engineering, EJGE, 16, Bund .M, pp. 1617-1628, 2011.
movement beneath the foundation. [14] Mandal, J. J., and Roychowdhury, S, “Response of Rectangular Raft
2. When the diaphragm wall depth increase this will lead to Foundations under Transient Loading,” Proceedings, 12th International
decrease in the amplitude of displacement due to an increase Conference of International Association for Computer Methods and
Advanced in Geomechanis (IACMAG), India, pp. 524-530, 2008.
confined soil underneath the foundation. This means that the [15] Mindlin, R. D, “Force at a point in the interior of a semi-infinite solid,”
stiffness is increased. In addition, the walls are worked to pp. 195-202, 1936.
increases the resistance of lateral displacement of soil [16] OpenSees Manual, 2005.
particles. [17] Phan, H. V., Desai, C. S., Sture, S. and Perumpral, J, “Three-
Dimensional Geometric and Material Nonlinearities Analysis of Some
3. The acceleration decreases as the diaphragm wall depths Problems in Geomechanics,” Proceedings of the Third International
increases, this behavior can be occurred because the increase Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, Aachen, 2-6 April, pp.
confined soil under foundation, Thereby increase the mass of 67-75, 1979.
soil-foundation system. [18] Prakash, S. and Puri, V, “ Foundations for Vibrating Machines,”
Journal of Structural Engineering, SERC, Madras, India, pp. 1-38, 2006.
4. the vertical displacement and acceleration will be decreased [19] Scott, R.F, “Foundation Analysis,” Prentice Hall. 1981.
with the increasing the distances between diaphragm wall and [20] Zienkiewicz, O.C. and Taylor, R.L, “The Finite Element Method,”
width of foundation under the same applied loads, where the McGraw-Hill, London, UK, 2005.
increase in distances leads to the gradual increase of soil -
foundation system rigidity due to increase of mass of this
system.
5. The horizontal displacement and horizontal acceleration of
the machine foundation will be increased with the increasing in
distances between diaphragm wall and width of foundation due
to the excess of lateral movement beneath the foundation.
6. The maximum amplitude of displacement of foundation
under dynamic loads can occur in soil of loose sand. This
behavior can be attributed to the reduction in the stiffness of
loose sand which is represented by the reduction in modulus of
elasticity.

VII. REFERENCES

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[4]Bathe K.J, “Finite Element Procedures. Prentice Hall,” NewJersey,1996
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[7]Chowdhury, I. and Dasgupta, S, “Dynamics of Structure and Foundation –
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in-situ walls,” Design and Performance of Earth Retaining Structures, ASCE,
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[9]Code of Practice for Foundation, Hong Kong, 2004.
[10] Das, B. M, “Shallow Foundations Bearing Capacity and Settlement,”
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[11] Dasgupta, S. P. and Rao, N. S, “Dynamics of Rectangular Footings by
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[12] Katona, M.G. and Zienkiewicz, O.C, “ A Unified Set of Single Step
Algorithms Part 3: The Betam Method, a Generalization of the Newmark
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