The Spectral Element Method as an Effective （谱元法作为有效）.pdf

th Proceedings of the 8 U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering April 18-22, 2006, San Francisco, California, USA Paper No. 413 THE SPECTRAL ELEMENT METHOD AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR SOLVING LARGE SCALE DYNAMIC SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS 1 2 3 2 3 2 M. Stupazzini , C. Zambelli , L. Massidda , R. Paolucci , F. Maggio , C. di Prisco ABSTRACT The spectral element method (SEM) is a powerful numerical technique naturally suited for wave propagation and dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI) analyses. A class of SEM has been widely used in the seismological field (local or global seismology) thanks to its capability of providing high accuracy and allowing the implementation of optimized parallel algorithms. We illustrate in this contribution how the SEM can be effectively used also for the numerical analysis of DSSI problems, with reference to the 3D seismic response of a railway viaduct in Italy. This numerical analysis includes the combined effect of: a) strong lateral variations of soil properties; b) topographic amplification; c) DSSI; d) spatial variation of earthquake ground motion in the structural response. Some hints on the work in progress to effectively handle nonlinear problems with SEM are also give