In this paper, horizontal seismic responses of a structure built on a sunken mat foundation were compared with those built on a solid embedded mat foundation to investigate the effect of a sunken mat foundation on the horizontal response of a structure. Seismic analyses of a structure laid on the embedded mat foundation were performed by utilizing a pseudo-3D finite element software of P3DASS. Three bedrock earthquake records downloaded from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center database were scaled to reproduce weak-moderate earthquakes. Weak, medium, and stiff soil layers were considered for the seismic analyses of the structure-foundation-soil system. Parametric studies were performed for foundation radius, foundation embedment depth, and shear wave velocity of a soil layer to investigate their effect on the seismic response spectrum. The study result showed that the design spectrum of a structure built on a sunken mat foundation was similar to that with a solid embedded mat foundation showing a slight difference due to almost the same seismic base motion beneath both embedded foundations.

Seismic analyses of a pile under a large rigid basement foundation embedded in the homogeneous soil layer were performed practically by a response displacement method assuming a sinusoidal wave form. However, it is hard to take into account the characteristics of a large mat foundation and a heterogeneous soil layer with the response displacement method. The response displacement method is relevant to the 2D problems for longitudinal structures such as tunnel, underground cave structure, etc., but might not be relevant with isolated foundations for building structures. In this study, seismic pile analysis by a pseudo 3D finite element method was carried out to compare numerical results with results of the response displacement method considering 3D characteristics of a foundation-soil system which is important for the building foundation analyses. Study results show that seismic analyses results of a response displacement method are similar to those of a pseudo 3D numerical method for stiff and dense soil layers, but they are too conservative for a soft soil layer inducing large soil pressures on the foundation wall and large pile displacements due to ignored foundation rigidity and resistance.