The analysis of soil - structure interaction problems using finite elements techniques requires construction of large finite element meshes in order to model the far field that is of minor interest. New types of elements. Infinite Elements, have been developed recently. These elements can be used to reduce the employed mesh size, thus, saving effort and time. The whole far field can be modelled using these infinite elements; and the structure along with the near field are to be modelled using the appropriate traditional finite elements.

In this paper, the performance of infinite elements in the dynamic analysis of soil- structure interaction problems is demonstrated. An infinite element is proposed and used in the analysis of a problem of a railway tunnel embedded in a soil medium under the effect of train loads. This load is assumed first to be static to determine the static parameters of the element, then, dynamic load is considered to complete our investigation of the performance of the proposed infinite element. Results of the tunnel deformations and internal forces assure the proper accuracy and the great saving in mesh size.

Generally, the proposed infintie element is proved to be valid and economic tool in the dynamic analysis of soil-,structure interaction problems under different cases of loading. All the previous works validated the application of different infinite elements in the frequency domain analysis under harmonic loads only. The performance of the proposed infinite element proves the validity of using infinite elements in the time domain analysis also.

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