Prediction of Parameters of Soil Stratums and Earthen Dams from Free Field Acceleration Records

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mourad A. Khellafi ◽  
Zamila Harichane ◽  
Hamid Afra ◽  
Ayfer Erken

This paper is dedicated to the identification of parameters of soil stratums and earthen dams from accelerometer records by inverse analysis using three kinds of optimization algorithms. The first one is the Levenberg-Marquart (L-M) gradient-based method, the second one is based on a genetic algorithm (G-A) optimization process, and the third one combines the two search algorithms to complete the identification task more efficiently. The efficiency of the two first algorithms is studied by identifying the unknown parameters of a multilayer soil profile. Then, the global -local hybrid scheme is applied to identify the soil profile characteristics and determine some information gaps using experimental data recorded within the Adapazari city during the Kocaeli earthquake of August 17, 1999. Finally, the applicability of the proposed identification procedure is verified through comparison of the parameter identification results and experimental ones at Bradbury dam by using ground motions records during the 1978 Santa Barbara earthquake (in USA).

Author(s):  
Z. Harichane ◽  
H. Afra ◽  
R. Bahar

In this paper, a new approach for soil profile characterization is validated. The soil characteristics are calculated by fitting the theoretical amplification functions to those obtained experimentally. The identified characteristics have been observed to agree well with those obtained by in situ and laboratory tests. This new approach uses system identification theory and free field records. It is based on formulation of theoretical soil amplification function for two sites in terms of the different parameters of the soil profile layers (thickness, damping ratio, shear wave velocity and unit weight). The theoretical function is smoothed according to the experimental data (spectral ratios) by means of the least squares minimization technique. The function parameters are determined by solving, numerically, a non linear optimization problem. In this approach, soil profile characteristics of two sites can be identified simultaneously, from only a single soil acceleration record at free surface of each site without need of bedrock or outcropping acceleration records. Strong ground motions data recorded during the Boumerdes earthquake (Algeria) of May 21, 2003, are used for the validation.


Author(s):  
Aidin Tamhidi ◽  
Nicolas Kuehn ◽  
S. Farid Ghahari ◽  
Arthur J. Rodgers ◽  
Monica D. Kohler ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Ground-motion time series are essential input data in seismic analysis and performance assessment of the built environment. Because instruments to record free-field ground motions are generally sparse, methods are needed to estimate motions at locations with no available ground-motion recording instrumentation. In this study, given a set of observed motions, ground-motion time series at target sites are constructed using a Gaussian process regression (GPR) approach, which treats the real and imaginary parts of the Fourier spectrum as random Gaussian variables. Model training, verification, and applicability studies are carried out using the physics-based simulated ground motions of the 1906 Mw 7.9 San Francisco earthquake and Mw 7.0 Hayward fault scenario earthquake in northern California. The method’s performance is further evaluated using the 2019 Mw 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake ground motions recorded by the Community Seismic Network stations located in southern California. These evaluations indicate that the trained GPR model is able to adequately estimate the ground-motion time series for frequency ranges that are pertinent for most earthquake engineering applications. The trained GPR model exhibits proper performance in predicting the long-period content of the ground motions as well as directivity pulses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toufiq Ouzandja ◽  
Mohamed Hadid

Purpose This paper aims to present the investigation of the linear and nonlinear seismic site response of a saturated inhomogeneous poroviscoelastic soil profile for different soil properties, such as pore-water saturation, non-cohesive fines content FC, permeability k, porosity n and coefficient of uniformity Cu. Design/methodology/approach The inhomogeneous soil profile is idealized as a multi-layered saturated poroviscoelastic medium and is characterized by the Biot’s theory, with a shear modulus varying continuously with depth according to the Wichtmann’s model. Seismic response analysis has been evaluated through a computational model, which is based on the exact stiffness matrix method formulated in the frequency domain assuming that the incoming seismic waves consist of inclined P-SV waves. Findings Unlike the horizontal seismic response, the results indicate that the vertical one is strongly affected by the pore water saturation. Moreover, in the case of fully saturated soil profile, the same vertical response spectra are found for the two cases of soil behavior, linear and nonlinear. Originality/value This research is a detailed study of the geotechnical soil properties effect on the bi-directional seismic response of saturated inhomogeneous poroviscoelastic soil profile, which has not been treated before; the results are presented in terms of the peak acceleration ratio, as well as the free-field response spectra and the spectral ratio (V/H).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Schmiester ◽  
Daniel Weindl ◽  
Jan Hasenauer

AbstractMotivationUnknown parameters of dynamical models are commonly estimated from experimental data. However, while various efficient optimization and uncertainty analysis methods have been proposed for quantitative data, methods for qualitative data are rare and suffer from bad scaling and convergence.ResultsHere, we propose an efficient and reliable framework for estimating the parameters of ordinary differential equation models from qualitative data. In this framework, we derive a semi-analytical algorithm for gradient calculation of the optimal scaling method developed for qualitative data. This enables the use of efficient gradient-based optimization algorithms. We demonstrate that the use of gradient information improves performance of optimization and uncertainty quantification on several application examples. On average, we achieve a speedup of more than one order of magnitude compared to gradient-free optimization. Additionally, in some examples, the gradient-based approach yields substantially improved objective function values and quality of the fits. Accordingly, the proposed framework substantially improves the parameterization of models from qualitative data.AvailabilityThe proposed approach is implemented in the open-source Python Parameter EStimation TOolbox (pyPESTO). All application examples and code to reproduce this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4507613.


1989 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
C. B. Crouse ◽  
Behnam Hushmand

Abstract Forced harmonic and impulse-response vibration tests were conducted at several California accelerograph stations operated by the California Division of Mines and Geology (CDMG) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to determine the extent to which soil-structure interaction may be affecting the recorded ground motions. The results of the tests on the foundations comprising USGS Station 6 in the Imperial Valley and CDMG Cholame 1E and Fault Zone 3 stations in the Cholame Valley indicated the presence of highly damped fundamental frequencies between 20 and 40 Hz. However, at the much larger Differential Array station, a masonry-block structure approximately 6 km southwest of Station 6, a moderately damped fundamental frequency of 12 Hz was observed. Approximate transfer functions between earthquake motions recorded at the stations and the free-field motions were computed from the response data obtained from the forced harmonic vibration tests. For the three smaller stations, these functions showed peak amplification factors ranging from 1.25 to 1.4 at frequencies between 20 and 40 Hz. The amplification at smaller frequencies was insignificant. For the Differential Array station, the amplification factor was 1.5 at 12 Hz and was roughly 0.6 for frequencies between 14 and 25 Hz. These results suggest that soil-structure interaction will have little effect on ground motions recorded at the smaller stations provided that most of the energy in these motions is confined to frequencies less than approximately 20 Hz. However, at the Differential Array station, soil-structure interaction probably has had, and will continue to have, a significant influence on the motions recorded at this station.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun-Hsiang Kuo ◽  
Shu-Hsien Chao ◽  
Che-Min Lin ◽  
Jyun-Yan Huang ◽  
Kuo-Liang Wen

<p>Site amplification behavior are important in ground motion prediction. Seismic waves were amplified and caused significant building damages in the Taipei Basin by the 1986 Hualien offshore (subduction interface) and the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquakes (crustal), for which both of the epicentral distances were nearly 100 km. To understand local site amplifications in Taiwan, empirical site amplification factors for both horizontal and vertical ground motions are studied using recently constructed strong motion and site databases for the free-field TSMIP stations. Records of large magnitude earthquakes of M<sub>W</sub> larger than 5.5 from 1991 to 2016 were selected for this study. Site amplification factors at site conditions with Vs30 between 120 m/s to 1600 m/s and bedrock accelerations up to 0.8 g were evaluated using ratios of spectral accelerations at different periods. The reference site condition, i.e. the engineering bedrock, is assumed as Vs30 of 760 m/s (B/C boundary) in this study. Our empirical site amplification form are borrowed from the site response function of ASK14 and CY14 ground motion models in NGA-West2 project with slight modification. Therefore our site amplification model includes a linear amplification term and a nonlinear deamplification term. The coefficients of the empirical models were obtained by a nonlinear regression analysis using the selected Taiwan data. Site amplification factor is a function of Vs30 and spectral intensity in the model. Similar linear site amplification factor to the NGA models is derived in our model; however, more significant soil nonlinearity behavior than the NGA models is likely captured from the empirical data. The amplification factor in vertical component is smaller than that in horizontal.</p>


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