Elastic responses of underground circular arches considering dynamic soil-structure interaction: A theoretical analysis

Due to the wide applications of arches in underground protective structures, dynamic analysis of circular arches including soil-structure interactions is important. In this paper, an exact solution of the forced vibration of circular arches subjected to subsurface denotation forces is obtained. The dynamic soil-structure interaction is considered with the introduction of an interfacial damping between the structure element and the surrounding soil into the equation of motion. By neglecting the influences of shear, rotary inertia and tangential forces and assuming the arch incompressible, the equations of motion of the buried arches were set up. Analytical solutions of the dynamic responses of the protective arches were deduced by means of modal superposition. Arches with different opening angles, acoustic impedances and rise-span ratios were analyzed to discuss their influences on an arch. The theoretical analysis suggests blast loads for elastic designs and predicts the potential failure modes for buried protective arches.