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Estimating inelastic sediment deformation from local site response simulations

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Abstract

Significant insight into the dynamic local site response of a horizontally layered sediment deposit to seismic excitation can be gained from numerical simulations. In this paper we use a nonlinear local site response analysis code SPECTRA to estimate the coseismic sediment deformation at a seismically active site in Lotung, Taiwan. We address some basic issues relevant for interpreting the simulation results, including the impact of noise and baseline offsets present in the input ground motion. We also consider the sensitivity of the predicted deformation responses to statistical variations of sediment constitutive properties. Finally, we apply a suite of hypothetical strong ground motions to the base of the sediment deposit to better understand the pattern of inelastic deformation likely to result from strong seismic shaking.

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Notes

  1. http://www.strongmotioncenter.org.

  2. http://peer.berkeley.edu/smcat/search.html.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. H.T. Tang and Electric Power Research Institute for providing the digitized ground motion data for the Lotung earthquakes. We also thank Dr. H. Haddadi for providing raw ground motion data for Gilroy 1, and Dr. C. Menun for allowing us to use the program CARDINAL. This research was funded by NSF Grant No. CMS-0201317.

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  1. Wai Ching Sun

    Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08541, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Ronaldo I. Borja & Wai Ching Sun

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  1. Ronaldo I. Borja
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  2. Wai Ching Sun
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Correspondence to Ronaldo I. Borja.

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Borja, R.I., Sun, W.C. Estimating inelastic sediment deformation from local site response simulations. Acta Geotech. 2, 183–195 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-007-0044-x

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