The Use of Polyurethane Injection as a Geotechnical Seismic Isolation Method in Large-Scale Applications: A Numerical Study

This paper analyses the effect of polyurethane injections on the seismic surficial response of cohesionless soils. For this purpose, dynamic finite element numerical analyses were performed through GiD + OpenSees. Both the soil and the composite material, resulted after the expansion of the injected polyurethane, are modelled with a nonlinear hysteretic constitutive model. Based on the polyurethane percentage, a homogenisation of the characteristics was considered for the composite material: linear for density and damping, and exponential (experimentally calibrated) for the stiffness. An expansion coefficient quantifies how much the injected polyurethane expands: three expansion coefficients were considered, each of them related to a different polyurethane density. For the evaluation of the foam stiffness, a linear stiffness-density correlation was used, derived after impact tests. Results showed that polyurethane reduces the surficial accelerations proportionally to the ratio of its seismic impedance and volumetric percentage with respect to the soil seismic impedance and total volume. This is a preliminary indication for the design of polyurethane injections in cohesionless soils for seismic acceleration reduction.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effect of polyurethane injections on the seismic surficial response of cohesionless soils through dynamic finite element numerical analysis. The results demonstrate that polyurethane can reduce surface accelerations, providing preliminary guidance for designing polyurethane injections to reduce seismic accelerations in cohesionless soils.