Nonlinear Amplification of Seismic Ground Motion by Alluvial Valley

Abstract

This paper studies nonlinear amplification of seismic ground motion by alluvial valley in layered sites. The equivalent linear method is used in dynamic analysis and transmitting boundaries are added at boundaries of the computation region. It is shown that, soil nonlinearity has significant effect on seismic ground motion around alluvial valley. The amplitudes in the case of linear alluvium and soil layers are the largest, those in the case of nonlinear alluvium and soil layers are the smallest, and those in the case of nonlinear alluvium and linear soil layers fall in between. The periods in the case of nonlinear alluvium and soil layers are the longest, those in the case of nonlinear alluvium and soil layers and those in the case of linear alluvium and linear soil layers are almost the same.