P2011SQF2

This series of experiments studies the performance of an idealized SDOF structure under combined loading through monotonic and slow cyclic push-over tests. Emphasis is given on the nonlinear response of its square surface foundation. Moreover, the use of a shallow improved soil layer is introduced, as a performance enhancement measure and its effectiveness is put to the test. The consecutive investigation refers to soil crusts of depth z/B = 1, z/B = 0.5 and z/B = 0.25, where B is the foundation width. For the purposes of this series, a foundation-superstructure model exclusively designed for this case was used. The model gives the ability of altering the mass (and therefore achieving the desired FSV) as well as selecting the desired slenderness ratio h/B. For this series of experiments h/B was set to 3 and the parametrical investigations were conducted with two different superstructure mass. Moreover, apart from using two different systems in terms of superstructural mass, two different systems in terms of soil profile were adopted in the experiments as well, resulting, thus, to a great number of cases explored.