SECTION BUILDING STRUCTURES & STRUCTURAL MECHANICS VOLUME: 18 | NUMBER: 2 | 2018 | DECEMBER
© 2018 TRANSACTIONS OF VSB - TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF OSTRAVA CIVIL ENGINEERING SERIES 60
Numerical Analysis of Subsoil-Reinforced Concrete Slab
Interaction
Tuan Duc LE
1
, Qui Thanh NGUYEN
1
and Radim CAJKA
2
1
Department of Structural Mechanics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB - Technical University of Ostrava,
Ludvika Podeste 1875/17, 708 33 Ostrava - Poruba, Czech Republic
2
Department of Building Structures, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB - Technical University of Ostrava,
Ludvika Podeste 1875/17, 708 33 Ostrava - Poruba, Czech Republic
duc.tuan.le.st@vsb.cz, qui.nguyen.thanh.st@vsb.cz, radim.cajka@vsb.cz
DOI: 10.31490/tces-2018-0018
Abstract. This article presents the numerical modeling of
interaction between a reinforced concrete slab and
subsoil using ABAQUS. Subsoil was simulated as both
homogeneous half-space and inhomogeneous half-space.
Reinforcement bars in the concrete slab were accurately
modelled allowing capturing a precise deformation
profile of the slab in interaction with subsoil. Input data
for numerical analysis were adopted from a published
work. Results of the study were verified on the basis of
comparison with those of the previous study.
Keywords
Deformation, finite element method, interaction models,
numerical models, reinforced concrete slab, subsoil-
structure interaction.
1. Introduction
Researches on subsoil-structure interaction have been
intensively done over recent years. Those studies have
covered many aspects of the interaction [1], [2], [3], [4],
[5], [6] and [7]. For instance, R. Cajka 2013 presented a
method of determination of friction parameters for soil-
structure interaction [5]. Stress strain analysis of elastic
half-space using Gauss numerical integration and
Jacobean of transformation was conducted by R. Cajka in
2013 [6] and results were further analyzed by R. Cajka
and J. Labudkova in 2015 [7].
In addition, experimental measurements of stress and
subsidence in subsoil were also carried out by many
researchers such as G.X. Mei et al. 2005 [8], Cajka et al.
2014 [9] and [10]. M. Mohyla et al. 2017 [11] analyzed
stress under foundation slab with a physical surface
interface between foundation slab and the subsoil by
experimental measurement. Measurements from site tests
and experiments allow having a better understanding
about behaviors of both subsoil and structure as well as
their interaction.
Unfortunately, in-situ tests and site experiments are
usually expensive and time consuming. As a result,
numerical analysis of subsoil-structure interaction has
become a current trend. Researchers and experts are
improving and developing the analysis of subsoil-
structure interaction based on finite element methods
(FEM) or based on the combination of both experimental
measurements and FEM. For example, R. Cajka 2014
[12] made a comparison of calculated values of
settlement and stress state of concrete slab on subsoil and
those values got from experiments. In 2014, R. Cajka and
J. Labudkova [13] described how calculated deformations
depend on parameters of soil environment modeled by
3D finite elements. Deformation and contact stress of the
slab and subsidence of the subsoil were calculated by
using two FEM programs, Scia Engineer [14] and
Mkpinter (a non-commercial software created by Cajka
R., co-author of this paper), in [15]. Numerical
interaction model of reinforced concrete (RC) slab and
subsoil was also modelled in ANSYS [16] with
application of inhomogeneous half-space to get better
subsoil behavior [17]. This model was also applied to
simulate the interaction between subsoil and steel-fibre
reinforced concrete slab in [18].
This research aimed at the analysis of the interaction
between subsoil and RC slab under the scheme of FEM.
The study can be considered as a continuing development
of the work of [17] on which ABAQUS [19] is used
instead of ANSYS and reinforcement bars in the concrete
slab are modelled with more realistic 3D body. In
addition, this work took into account of the influence of
friction between the subsoil and the slab which was
neglected in [17]. Furthermore, the non-linear material