AbstractThe dynamic response of foundation is influenced by various mechanical properties of soil as well as the geometrical properties of the foundation. In this paper, the effects of Poisson's ratio and material damping, as well as the influences of aspect ratio and embedment depth on the dynamic stiffness of rectangular foundations are studied. Studies are also conducted to investigate the influence of the type of contact at the soil–foundation interface and the soil layer overlaying a half‐space. These studies were conducted using an advanced algorithm of the boundary element method incorporating isoparameteric quadratic boundary elements. Higher‐order elements (quadratic) were used since they can model the wavy nature of the dynamic problem accur