Site amplification of earthquake ground motion

The considered parameters in seismic design vary, with the Earthquake Ground Motion (EGM) having the largest variation. Since source characteristic, path characteristic, and Site Amplification Factor (SAF) influence the EGM, it is crucial to appropriately consider their variations. Source characteristic variations are mainly considered in a seismic hazard analysis, which is commonly used to evaluate variations in EGM. However, it is also important to evaluate variations in path characteristic and SAF with only a few studies having individually and quantitatively examined the variations of these two characteristics. In this study, based on strong-motion observation records obtained from four sites in central Japan, the three characteristics were extracted from seismograms using the concept of spectral inversion. After removing the source characteristic, the path characteristic and SAF were separated, and the variations in these two characteristics were quantified. To separate and obtain each characteristic from the observed record, one constraint condition must be imposed, whereas the variations in the constraint condition must be ignored. In that case, the variations in the constraint condition are included in the variations of the separated characteristics. In this study, this problem was solved by evaluating the variation in the constraint condition, which is the SAF at a hard rock site, by the use of the vertical array observation record at the site.

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RMS response of a one-dimensional half-space to SH

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America ◽

10.1785/bssa0860020363 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 86 (2) ◽

pp. 363-370 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Steven M. Day

Keyword(s):

Travel Time ◽

Half Space ◽

Ground Motion ◽

Elastic Properties ◽

Site Amplification ◽

Frequency Resolution ◽

Elastic Structure ◽

Earthquake Ground Motion ◽

Site Classification ◽

Near Surface

Abstract We examine the extent to which the response of a perfectly elastic half-space to an SH-wave incident from below can be characterized when knowledge about the elastic structure is limited to the near surface. Elastic properties are modeled as piecewise continuous functions of the depth coordinate. It is found that the site amplification function can be determined with a frequency resolution that depends inversely on the depth to which the elastic structure is known. Specifically, certain spectral averages of the site amplification function, concentrated over bandwidth Δƒ, depend only on the elastic structure down to a two-way travel-time depth of 1/Δƒ. These spectral averages are entirely independent of the elastic properties at greater depth. Equivalently, when the incident motion has a bandlimited white power spectrum of bandwidth Δƒ, the site amplification of the root mean square (rms) ground motion depends only on the elastic structure down to a two-way travel-time depth of 1/Δƒ. When the bandwidth is sufficiently large, the following corollary applies: the rms surface ground motion equals the rms incident motion multiplied by 2√Ib/I0, where I0 and Ib are shear impedances at the ground surface and basement depth, respectively. This result provides justification for a procedure conventionally used to correct stochastic estimates of earthquake ground motion to account for local site effects. The analysis also clarifies the limitations of that conventional procedure. The results define specific site-response parameters that can be computed from knowledge of shallow structure alone and may thereby contribute to improved understanding of the physical basis for, and limitations of, site classification schemes that are based on average S-wave velocity at shallow depth. While the analytical results are rigorous only for infinite Q, numerical experiments indicate that similar results apply to models with finite, frequency-independent Q. The practical utility of the results is likely to be limited primarily by the degree of lateral heterogeneity present near sites of interest and the degree to which the sites respond nonlinearly to incident ground motion.

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