On the fundamental resonant mode of inhomogeneous soil deposits
The problem of estimating seismic ground deformation is central to state-of-practice procedures of designing and maintaining infrastructure in earthquake-prone areas. Particularly, the problem of estimating the displacement field in a soft shallow layer overlying rigid bedrock induced by simple SH wave excitation has been favored by engineers due to its simplicity combined with inherent relevance for practical scenarios. We here derive analytical, accurate estimates for both the fundamental frequency and the amplitude of the first resonant mode of such systems by applying an intuitive argument based on resonance of single-degree-of-freedom systems. Our estimates do not presuppose a continuous velocity distribution, and can be used for fast assessment of site response in seismic hazard assessment and engineering design. On the basis of the said estimates of fundamental frequency and amplitude, we next propose a novel definition of ``equivalent homogeneous shear modulus’’ of the inhomogeneous deposit; and we show that the response of the fundamental mode of these systems is governed by the mechanical properties of the layers closer to the bedrock. We finally discuss the validity of our argument, and evaluate the accuracy of our results by comparison with analytical and numerical solutions.