Evaluating the Seismic Response of Deep Sandy Soil Deposits

Authors

Barbara Luke, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
N. Matasovic, GeoSyntec Consultants
M. Kemnitz, Western Technologies, Inc.Follow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2001

Publication Title

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

Volume

91

Issue

6

First page number:

1516

Last page number:

1525

Abstract

We investigated the influence of depth to the half-space on evaluations of seismic response of a dry sandy soil deposit with thickness exceeding 100 m. Our investigation is based on the premise that the best estimate of surface response of such deposits is obtained using a statistically derived attenuation relationship, and the best estimate of other parameters required for geotechnical earthquake-engineering evaluations is obtained by calibrating the evaluated spectral characteristics of the site response using the best-estimate surface response. Results of our site-specific evaluations indicate that the preferred depth to the half-space does not coincide with the depth to bedrock, nor is the preferred depth uniquely defined in the seismic site-response analysis. We find that for a given accelerogram, the preferred depth to the half-space corresponds closely to the depth for which the peak horizontal ground acceleration (PHGA) predicted in the site-response analysis matches the median PHGA developed from the appropriate statistical attenuation relationship. Our results further indicate that the effect of the magnitude of the shear-wave velocity assigned to the half-space is minor in comparison with depth to the half-space.

Keywords

Earthquake engineering; Geotechnical engineering; Seismology; Soils

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Environmental Engineering | Geotechnical Engineering

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Luke, B., Matasovic, N., Kemnitz, M. (2001). Evaluating the Seismic Response of Deep Sandy Soil Deposits. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 91(6), 1516-1525.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/0120000235