Impedance functions for foundations embedded in a layered medium: An integral equation approach

An integral equation technique to calculate the dynamic response of foundations embedded in a layered viscoelastic half-space when subjected to external forces and moments is presented. The technique is based on representing the radiated field as resulting from a set of sources distributed over a surface internal to the actual boundary of the foundation and by imposing the boundary conditions in an integral sense. The resulting non-singular integral equation with symmetric kernel is solved by discretization and reduction to a system of linear algebraic equations. The technique is validated by comparison with previous results for cylindrical foundations with different embedment ratios.