Analytical 1D transfer functions for layered soils

Transfer functions are constantly used in both Seismology and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering to relate seismic displacement at different depths within strata. In the context of Diffusive Theory, they also appear in the expression of the imaginary part of 1D Green's functions. In spite of its remarkable importance, their mathematical structure is not fully understood yet, except in the simplest cases of two or three layers at most. This incomplete understanding, in particular as to the effect of increasing number of layers, hinders progress in some areas, as researchers have to resort to expensive and less conclusive numerical parametric studies. This text presents the general form of transfer functions for any number of layers, overcoming the above issues. Owing to the formal connection between seismic wave propagation and other phenomena that, in essence, represent different instances of wave propagation in a linear-elastic medium, one can extend the results derived elsewhere [Garcia-Suarez, Joaquin. 2021. “Trace Spectrum of 1D Transfer Matrices for Wave Propagation in Layered Media.” engrXiv. June 24. doi:10.31224/osf.io/ygt8z] in the context of longitudinal wave propagation in modular rods to seismic response of stratified sites. The knowledge of the general closed-form expression of the transfer functions allows to analytically characterize the long-wavelength asymptotics of the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio for any number of layers.

Student Zone

A student training program, Engineering Seismology and Seismic Microzonation for Seismic Site Effects Assessment, was held 18–22 January 2020 in Lalitpur, Nepal. It was created through the collaboration of Thammasat University and Tribhuvan University, with support from Geoscientists Without Borders® (GWB). The goal of the program was to connect students with modern geophysical instrumentation and software through training. It specifically advanced theoretical and hands-on field-based knowledge pertaining to geotechnical earthquake engineering aspects and applications. The training served as part of a broader GWB project, Seismic Site Effects Study in Nepal, encompassing basin geometry, site characteristics, and the study of seismic site effects through microtremor measurements in Kathmandu Valley.

Influence of Structure on the Aseismic Stability and Dynamic Responses of Liquefiable Soil

In previous major earthquakes, the damage and collapse of structures located in liquefied field which caused by site failure a common occurrence, and the problem of evaluation and disscusion on site liquefaction and the seismic stability is still a key topic in geotechnical earthquake engineering. To study the influence of the presence of structure on the seismic stability of liquefiable sites, a series of shaking table tests on liquefiable free field and non-free field with the same soil sample was carried out. It can be summarized from experimental results as following. The natural frequency of non-free field is larger and the damping ratio is smaller than that of free field. For the weak seismic loading condition, the dynamic response of sites show similar rules and trend. For the strong ground motion condition, soils in both experiments all liquefied obviously and the depth of liquefaction soil in the free field is significantly greater than that in the non-free field, besides, porewater pressure in the non-free field accumulated relately slow and the dissapited quikly from analysis of porewater pressure ratios(PPRs) in both experiments. The amplitudes of lateral displacements and acceleration of soil in the non-free field is obviously smaller than that in the free field caused by the effect of presence of the structure. In a word, the presence of structures will lead to the increase of site stiffness, site more difficult to liquefy, and the seismic stability of the non-free site is higher than that of the free site due to soil-structure interaction.

An archive of data from resonant column and cyclic torsional shear tests performed on Italian clays

Measurement of soil properties under cyclic and dynamic loading conditions is a critical task in the solution of most geotechnical earthquake engineering problems. The main dynamic properties of soils are usually expressed in terms of shear modulus, G, and damping ratio, D, and they are generally obtained from laboratory tests at different strain levels. Dynamic geotechnical problems often require a site-level or territorial approach involving a considerable number of dynamic laboratory tests that might be too expensive and time-consuming. Thus, it is a common practice to use empirical relationships between dynamic parameters and measurements from routine geotechnical tests. Therefore, the availability of a large and reliable archive of multiple testing results constitutes a fundamental step for geotechnical earthquake engineers and researchers. To this aim, a large data-set of the index and dynamic parameters measured from 170 undisturbed clay samples obtained from 90 sites in Central and Northern Italy is made available, and its use and application are further described and discussed.