Narrow Results

A stochastic function model of seismic ground motions is presented in this paper. It is derived from the consideration of physical mechanisms of seismic ground motions. The model includes the randomness inherent in the seismic source, propagation path and local site. For logical selection of the seismic acceleration records, a cluster analysis method is employed. Statistical distributions of the random parameters associated with the proposed model are identified using the selected data. Superposition method of narrow-band wave groups is then adopted to simulate non-stationary seismic ground motions. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed model, comparative studies of time histories and response spectra of the simulated seismic accelerations against those of the recorded seismic accelerations are carried out. Their probability density functions, moreover, are readily investigated by virtue of the probability density evolution method.

An analytical solution for diffraction of both plane and cylindrical SH waves induced by a horseshoe shaped cavity with an inverted arch is presented in this paper. The geometry of the cavity is assumed to be composed of two circular arcs. By introducing an auxiliary boundary, the whole physical region is divided into two computational regions. The scattered wavefield in the open region and the standing wavefield in the enclosed region are presented by means of the wave function expansion method. Both of the wavefields are given in terms of the wave function series with unknown coefficients. By applying the Graf’s addition formula, two systems of equations for seeking the unknowns are derived by taking advantage of the boundary conditions based on the region-matching strategy. The problem of wave scattering is finally solved after seeking the solutions of the two systems of equations through standard matrix techniques. Then the effects of the excitation frequency, the cavity embedment depth and cavity geometry are discussed. The differences in terms of ground motions under different excitations and the influence of source location under cylindrical waves are also examined.

To elucidate the ground motion amplification due to soil and topographic effects, an analytical formulation based on wavefunction expansion is derived for the scattering of plane SH waves by a semi-cylindrical valley partially filled with a crescent-shaped soil layer. The site responses consisting of both soil and topographic effects from the partially filled alluvial valley and the pure topographic contribution from the homogeneous valley of the same geometry are calculated and compared. It is found that the soil amplification effects are usually larger than the topographic amplification effects within the alluvial valley, while the topographic effects dominate the amplification pattern of ground motions outside the alluvial valley. Generally, the maximum soil amplification generally far outweighs the maximum topographic amplification. The material parameters and filling degree of the soil layer are found to affect the magnitude and the pattern of ground motion amplitude on the valley surface depending on the irregular topography, the frequency content and obliquity of the wave incidence.

In this paper, empirical mode decomposition technique is used to analyze the spatial slip distribution of five past earthquakes. It is shown that the finite fault slip models exhibit five empirical modes of oscillation. The last intrinsic mode is positive and characterizes the non-stationary mean of the slip distribution. This helps in splitting the spatial variability of slip into trend and the remaining modes sum as the fluctuation in the data. The fluctuation component indicates that it can be modeled as an anisotropic random field. Important parameters of this random field have been estimated. The effect of these modes on ground motion is presented by simulating both acceleration and displacement time histories.