Providing NEHRP Soil Classification from the Direct Interpretation of Effective Rayleigh-Wave Dispersion Curves

Abstract The effective phase velocity corresponding to the wavelength of 40 m ( V e 40) is proposed here as a proxy to provide National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) soil classification. This represents an extension of previously proposed approaches that might be of interest for scientists or practitioners who are using methods for estimating the phase velocity that are not allowing an unequivocal separation of modes. With respect to previous works, more extensive numerical simulations were carried out by considering 13,000 V S profiles, both including normally and inversely dispersive configurations. These indicate that V e 40 provides reliable classifications in more than 80% of cases. This percentage of successes is comparable with that of standard measurements (down-hole) when realistic experimental uncertainties are accounted for.

[1]  Jianghai Xia,et al.  The Selection of Field Acquisition Parameters for Dispersion Images from Multichannel Surface Wave Data , 2004 .

[2]  Roger D. Borcherdt,et al.  Estimates of Site-Dependent Response Spectra for Design (Methodology and Justification) , 1994 .

[3]  Experimental Uncertainty on the Vs(z) Profile and Seismic Soil Classification , 2009 .

[4]  D. Wald,et al.  Review Article Topographic Slope as a Proxy for Seismic Site Conditions and Amplification , 2007 .

[5]  F. Mulargia,et al.  VS30 Estimates Using Constrained H/V Measurements , 2009 .

[6]  F. Cotton,et al.  ROBUSTNESS OF THE H/V RATIO PEAK FREQUENCY TO ESTIMATE 1D RESONANCE FREQUENCY , 2006 .

[7]  William T. Holmes,et al.  The 1997 NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures , 2000 .

[8]  Kohji Tokimatsu,et al.  S-Wave Velocity Profiling by Joint Inversion of Microtremor Dispersion Curve and Horizontal-to-Vertical (H/V) Spectrum , 2005 .

[9]  Raymond B. Seed,et al.  New Site Coefficients and Site Classification System Used in Recent Building Seismic Code Provisions , 2000 .

[10]  S. Parolai,et al.  S-wave Velocity Profiles for Earthquake Engineering Purposes for the Cologne Area (Germany) , 2006 .

[11]  Paul G. Richards,et al.  Quantitative Seismology: Theory and Methods , 1980 .

[12]  H. Okada.  The Microtremor Survey Method , 2003 .

[13]  Dario Albarello,et al.  On the seismic noise wavefield in a weakly dissipative layered Earth , 2009 .

[14]  David M. Boore,et al.  Estimating V̄s(30) (or NEHRP Site Classes) from Shallow Velocity Models (Depths < 30 m) , 2004 .

[15]  John N. Louie,et al.  Faster, Better: Shear-Wave Velocity to 100 Meters Depth From Refraction Microtremor Arrays , 2001 .

[16]  L. Chan,et al.  Effects of Possible Effects of Misidentified Mode Number on Rayleigh Wave Inversion , 2003 .

[17]  Anne-Marie Duval,et al.  A Shear Wave Velocity Study Based on the Kik-net Borehole Data: A Short Note , 2009 .

[18]  Katsuaki Konno,et al.  AN ESTIMATING METHOD FOR THE AVERAGE S-WAVE VELOCITY OF GROUND FROM THE PHASE VELOCITY OF RAYLEIGH WAVE , 2000 .

[19]  Kohji Tokimatsu,et al.  Effects of Multiple Modes on Rayleigh Wave Dispersion Characteristics , 1992 .

[20]  M. Ohori,et al.  A Comparison of ESAC and FK Methods of Estimating Phase Velocity Using Arbitrarily Shaped Microtremor Arrays , 2002 .

[21]  Donat Fäh,et al.  H/V ratio: a tool for site effects evaluation. Results from 1-D noise simulations , 2006 .

[22]  Richard D. Miller,et al.  Multichannel analysis of surface waves , 1999 .

[23]  Shear-wave velocity structure of sediments from the inversion of explosion-induced Rayleigh waves: Comparison with cross-hole measurements , 1997 .

[24]  Yoshiaki Hisada,et al.  An efficient method for computing Green's functions for a layered half-space with sources and receivers at close depths (part 2) , 1995, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[25]  Silvia Castellaro,et al.  Vs30: Proxy for Seismic Amplification? , 2008 .

[26]  Kohji Tokimatsu,et al.  S-Wave Velocity Profiling by Inversion of Microtremor H/V Spectrum , 2004 .

[27]  Dario Albarello,et al.  Combining genetic and linearized algorithms for a two-step joint inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion and H/V spectral ratio curves , 2007 .

[28]  Dario Albarello,et al.  Theoretical HVSR curves from full wavefield modelling of ambient vibrations in a weakly dissipative layered Earth , 2010 .

[29]  Maria Rosaria Gallipoli,et al.  Comparison of site classification from VS30, VS10, and HVSR in Italy , 2009 .

[30]  Dario Albarello,et al.  Alternative interpretations of horizontal to vertical spectral ratios of ambient vibrations: new insights from theoretical modeling , 2010 .

[31]  J. Tukey,et al.  Variations of Box Plots , 1978 .

[32]  Robb E.S. Moss,et al.  Quantifying Measurement Uncertainty of Thirty-Meter Shear-Wave Velocity , 2008 .

[33]  Michael W. Asten,et al.  Statistical Validity Control on SPAC Microtremor Observations Recorded with a Restricted Number of Sensors , 2010 .