1D finite element artificial boundary method for layered half space site response from obliquely incident earthquake

Abstract

Site response analysis is an important topic in earthquake engineering. A time-domain numerical method called as one-dimensional (1D) finite element artificial boundary method is proposed to simulate the homogeneous plane elastic wave propagation in a layered half space subjected to the obliquely incident plane body wave. In this method, an exact artificial boundary condition combining the absorbing boundary condition with the inputting boundary condition is developed to model the wave absorption and input effects of the truncated half space under layer system. The spatially two-dimensional (2D) problem consisting of the layer system with the artificial boundary condition is transformed equivalently into a 1D one along the vertical direction according to Snell’s law. The resulting 1D problem is solved by the finite element method with a new explicit time integration algorithm. The 1D finite element artificial boundary method is verified by analyzing two engineering sites in time domain and by comparing with the frequency-domain transfer matrix method with fast Fourier transform.