Stability of the time-domain analysis method including a frequency-dependent soil-foundation system

A number of methods have been proposed that utilize the time-domain transformations of frequency-dependent dynamic impedance functions to perform a time-history analysis. Though these methods have been available in literature for a number of years, the methods exhibit stability issues depending on how the model parameters are calibrated. In this study, a novel method is proposed with which the stability of a numerical integration scheme combined with time-domain representation of a frequency-dependent dynamic impedance function can be evaluated. The method is verified with three independent recursive parameter models. The proposed method is expected to be a useful tool in evaluating the potential stability issue of a time-domain analysis before running a full-fledged nonlinear time-domain analysis of a soil-structure system in which the dynamic impedance of a soil-foundation system is represented with a recursive parameter model. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.