• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.161-171
• /
• 2017

Observed ground motions are composed of three factors such as, seismic source, attenuation, and site amplification effect. Among them, the site amplification characteristics should be considered significantly when estimating seismic source and attenuation characteristics with more confidence. The site effect is also necessary when estimating not only seismic hazard in seismic design engineering but also rock mechanical properties. This study uses the method of H/V spectral ratio of observed ground motion between target site and reference site called a reference site method. In addition to using the vertical Fourier spectrum of the reference site, we try out the horizontal Fourier spectrum as a new method in this study. We analyze H/V spectral ratio of six ground motions respectively, observed at four sites close to Yedang Reservoir. We then compare site amplification effects at each site using 3 kinds of seismic energies including S waves, Coda waves energy, and background noise. The results suggest that each site showed similar site amplification patterns in S waves and Coda waves energy. However, the site amplification of background noise shows much different characteristics from those of S waves and Coda wave energy, which suggests that the background noises at each site have their own developing mechanism. Each station shows its own characteristics of specific resonance frequency and site amplification properties in low, high and specific resonance frequency ranges. Comparison of the method used in this study to the others that used different methods can provide us with more information about the dynamic amplification of a site characteristics and site classification.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.53-64
• /
• 2023

Earth fissures with several kilometers will inevitably approach or cross the metro line, significantly threatening the safety of the underground structure in the earth fissure site. However, the influence of the earth fissure site's amplification effect on the metro station's dynamic response is still unclear. A representative earth fissure in Xi'an was taken as an example to establish a numerical model of a metro station in the earth fissure site. The dynamic response characteristics of the metro stations at different distances from the earth fissure under various seismic waves were calculated. The results show that the existence of the earth fissure significantly amplifies the dynamic response of the nearby underground structures. The responses of the axial force, shear force, bending moment, normal stress, horizontal displacement, inter-story drift, and relative slip of the metro station were all amplified within a specific influence range. The amplification effect increases with the seismic wave intensity. The amplification effect caused by the earth fissure has relatively weak impacts on the axial shear, shear force, bending movement, normal stress, and horizontal movement; slightly larger impacts on the inter-story drift and acceleration; and a significant impact on the relative slip. The influence ranges of the axial force and normal stress are approximately 20 m. The influence ranges of the acceleration and inter-story drift can reach 30 m. Therefore, the seismic fortification level of the underground structure in the earth fissure site needs to be improved.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.285-295
• /
• 2018

In this study, the effect of local site conditions (site class and site amplifications) and structural variability are investigated on fragility functions of typical building structures. The study area is chosen as Eastern Turkey. The fragility functions are developed using site-specific uniform hazard spectrum (UHS). The site-specific UHS is obtained based on simulated ground motions. The implementation of ground motion simulation into seismic hazard assessment has the advantage of investigating detailed local site effects. The typical residential buildings in Erzincan are represented by equivalent single degree of freedom systems (ESDOFs). Predictive equations are accomplished for structural seismic demands of ESDOFs to derive fragility functions in a straightforward manner. To study the sensitivity of fragility curves to site class, two sites on soft and stiff soil are taken into account. Two alternative site amplification functions known as generic and theoretical site amplifications are examined for these two sites. The reinforced concrete frames located on soft soil display larger fragilities than those on stiff soil. Theoretical site amplification mostly leads to larger fragilities than generic site amplification more evidently for reinforced concrete buildings. Additionally, structural variability of ESDOFs is generally observed to increase the fragility especially for rigid structural models.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.821-845
• /
• 2016

Extensive researches on distribution of earthquake induced damages in different regions have shown that geological and geotechnical conditions of the local soils significantly influence behavior of alluvial areas under seismic loading. In this article, the site of Babol city which is formed up of saturated fine alluvial soils is considered as a case study. In order to reduce the uncertainties associated with earthquake resistant design of structures in this area (Babol city), the required design parameters have been evaluated with consideration of site's dynamic effects. The utilized methodology combines experimental ground ambient noise analysis, expressed in terms of horizontal to vertical (H/V) spectral ratio, with numerical one-dimensional response analysis of soil columns using DEEPSOIL software. The H/V spectral analysis was performed at 60 points, experimentally, for the region in order to estimate both the fundamental period and its corresponding amplification for the ground vibration. The investigation resulted in amplification ratios that were greater than one in all areas. A good agreement between the proposed ranges of natural periods and alluvial amplification ratios obtained through the analytical model and the experimental microtremor studies verifies the analytical model to provide a good engineering reflection of the subterraneous alluviums.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.111-127
• /
• 2010

This paper studies the effects of spatially varying ground motions on the responses of a bridge frame located on a canyon site. Compared to the spatial ground motions on a uniform flat site, which is the usual assumptions in the analysis of spatial ground motion variation effects on structures, the spatial ground motions at different locations on surface of a canyon site have different intensities owing to local site amplifications, besides the loss of coherency and phase difference. In the proposed approach, the spatial ground motions are modelled in two steps. Firstly, the base rock motions are assumed to have the same intensity and are modelled with a filtered Tajimi-Kanai power spectral density function and an empirical spatial ground motion coherency loss function. Then, power spectral density function of ground motion on surface of the canyon site is derived by considering the site amplification effect based on the one dimensional seismic wave propagation theory. Dynamic, quasi-static and total responses of the model structure to various cases of spatially varying ground motions are estimated. For comparison, responses to uniform ground motion, to spatial ground motions without considering local site effects, to spatial ground motions without considering coherency loss or phase shift are also calculated. Discussions on the ground motion spatial variation and local soil site amplification effects on structural responses are made. In particular, the effects of neglecting the site amplifications in the analysis as adopted in most studies of spatial ground motion effect on structural responses are highlighted.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.131-146
• /
• 2020

Evaluation of earthquake impacts in settlements with a high risk of earthquake occurrence is important for the determination of site-specific dynamic soil parameters and earthquake-resistant structural planning. In this study, dynamic soil properties of Karliova (Bingol) city center, located near to the intersection point of the North Anatolian Fault Zone and the East Anatolian Fault Zone and therefore having a high earthquake risk, were investigated by one-dimensional equivalent linear site response analysis. From ground response analyses, peak ground acceleration, predominant site period, 0.2-sec and 1-sec spectral accelerations and soil amplification maps of the study area were obtained for both near-field and far-field earthquake effects. The average acceleration spectrum obtained from analysis, for a near-field earthquake scenario, was found to exceed the design spectra of the Turkish Earthquake Code and Eurocode 8. Yet, the average acceleration spectrum was found to remain below the respective design spectra of the two codes for the far-field earthquake scenario. According to both near- and far-field earthquake scenarios in the study area, the low-rise buildings with low modal vibration durations are expected to be exposed to high spectral acceleration values and high-rise buildings with high modal vibration durations will be exposed to lower spectral accelerations. While high amplification ratios are observed in the north of the study area for the near-distance earthquake scenario, high amplification ratios are observed in the south of the study area for the long-distance earthquake scenario.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.759-768
• /
• 2015

The ground motions of large dimensional structures such as long span bridges at different stations during an earthquake, are inevitably different, which is known as the ground motion spatial variation effect. There are many causes that may result in the spatial variability in seismic ground motion, e.g., the wave passage effect due to the different arrival times of waves at different locations; the loss of coherency due to seismic waves scattering in the heterogeneous medium of the ground; the site amplification effect owing to different local soil properties. In previous researches, the site amplification effects have not been considered or considered by a single-layered soil model only. In this study, however, the ground motion amplification and filtering effects are evaluated by multi-layered soil model. Spatially varying ground motion at the sites with different number of layers, depths, and soil characteristics are generated and the variation characteristics of ground motion time histories according to the correlation of coherency loss function and soil conditions are evaluated. For the bridge system composed of two unit bridges, seismic behavior characteristics are analyzed using the generated seismic waves as input ground motion. Especially, relative displacement due to coherency loss and site effect which can cause the unseating and pounding between girders are evaluated. As a result, considering the soil conditions of each site are always important and should not be neglected for an accurate structural response analysis.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.225-242
• /
• 2008

The site effect for 23 broadband seismic stations in the southern Korean Peninsula was estimated by using the spectral ratio of coda waves. In principle, the site effect means the pure amplification below the station excluding effects of seismic source and attenuation in the wave transmission. However, the site effect determined in this study is equivalent with the relative site amplification factor to the mean amplification for all stations. A total of 500 three-component seismograms from 35 earthquakes, of which magnitude ranged from 2.5 to 5.1 occurred from January, 2001 to January, 2007 was used to obtain the site amplification factor. The site amplification factors were estimated for the frequency bands centered at 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 Hz. It was found that the factors for two horizontal components of transverse and radial records were concordant with each other in the all frequency bands. However, the factor for the vertical component was found to be systematically lower than those for two horizontal components. The factors obtained in the low frequency band below 2 Hz ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 in all seismic stations except for KMA and KIGAM stations in Bagryeongdo (BRD1 and BRD2) of which factor showed high value above 1.5. Some stations such as SEO, SNU, HKU, NPR, and GKPI showed high value above 1.5 in the high frequency band from 5 to 20 Hz. Especially, the factors of GKP1 station represented extremely high value ranging from 1.8 to 7.8. Also, the factors for stations of KWJ, SND, and ULJ showed low value below 0.5. The spatial distribution for the relative amplification factor represented a tendency of being approximately lower in north-eastern area than south-western area in the southern Korean Peninsula.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.367-380
• /
• 2024

Investigations has shown that the correct estimation of the effective amplification period is as important as the amplification value itself. It gets more important in 2D basins. This study presents a quantitative coefficient for consideration of the nonlinearity effect in terms of amplification value and the shift in its period which is missing or ineffectively considered in the previous studies. To attain this goal, by the application of a time domain fully nonlinear method, the deviation of the more common equivalent linear results from the basin nonlinear behavior under strong ground motions is investigated quantitatively. Also, despite the increase in the damping ratio, the possibility of the increase in the amplification due to the increase in motion strength is shown. To make the results useful in engineering practice, by introducing nonlinearity ratio, the effect of the nonlinearity is quantitatively estimated for two soft and stiff clayey basins with three different depths under a set of motions scaled to two target spectrum. Results show that at the 100 m depth soft clayey basin, while the nonlinearity ratio shows a 35% deviation at the basin edge part under DD1 motion level, its effect moves to the central part with 20% effect under DD3 motion level. By the increase in depth to 150 m, the results show a decrease in the overall effect of the nonlinear behavior for both clay types. At this depth, the nonlinearity ratio gives a 30% and 17% difference on a limited distance from outcrop at the soft clayey basin under DD1 and DD3 motion levels, respectively. At the 30 m depth basins, the nonlinearity ratio shows up to 25% difference for different cases. The presented ratio would be introduced as nonlinearity coefficients for consideration of the nonlinearity effects in the codes. The presented quantitative margins will help the designer to have a better understanding of the amplification period change because of nonlinearity over 2D basin surface.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 1999.04a
• /
• pp.116-119
• /
• 1999

Amplification factor spectrum, using the observed strong ground motions database in the Korean Peninsula, has been obtained and compared with Standard Response Spectrum, which was suggested by United States Nuclear Regulatory Committee. The observed und motions from the Yongwol and the Kyoungju, and the other recent Earthquakes, respectively, which ate supposed to represent domestic seismotectonic characteristics such as seismic source, attenuation of the propagation medium, and site specific effect, are used for the analysis of amplification factor spectrum. The database are slightly different from the those of the second study. Amplification factors hue been calculated by comparing the observed peak ground motions with results from responses to the observed horizontal na vertical ground motions. The comparison have shown that the amplification factors resultant from this study exceeds these of Standard Response Spectrum, The results suggest that the characteristics of seismic strong ground motion, which are supposed to represent the domestic seismotectonic characteristics, differs from those of Standard Response Spectrum, especially at higher frequencies. The results from the 2nd study are similar to those of 1st analysis.