Simple Radiation Damping Model for Piles and Footings

Abstract

A simple model is developed to obtain radiation damping coefficients of soil‐foundation systems, for both plane‐strain and axisymmetric loading conditions. Despite the simplifying assumptions made, the obtained closed‐form results are in very good accord with available rigorous solutions for strip footings, circular footings and piles, resting on or embedded in a homogeneous space and subjected to vertical and horizontal vibration. The models are readily extended to a class of realistic inhomogeneous media, for which no exact solutions are presently available. Considerable insight is provided on the nature of radiation damping and its dependence on frequency, and an analogy is drawn with the propagation of sound from a loudspeaker.