Site Effect Evaluation in Basin Edge Using Microtremor Data and Numerical Modeling

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Geotechnical Engineering Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran

3 Geotechnical Engineering Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES)

4 Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Abstract

Despite extensive studies on the microtremor processing technics and horizontal to vertical (H/V) spectral ratio analysis, limited studies have been tried to interpret the observations and experimental results and confirming them via two and three-dimensional numerical modeling. The present article deals with this issue by selecting the Urmia alluvial basin. Previous seismic microzonation studies in this city show a broad peak or two neighboring peaks, close to each other at some points near to the edge of sedimentary basin. By examining the transfer functions obtained from one-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical analysis performed on an east-west section of the Urmia sedimentary basin, it was found that this issue could be due to a sudden change in thickness of the soil profiles on either side of measuring point and coupling of shear waves passing through these two different environments. This study shows a very good agreement between the frequency position of the two neighboring peaks between the H/V curve and two-dimensional transfer function. In addition, this study shows that when two-dimensional site effect is predominant, the resonance frequencies are higher compared to one-dimensional conditions. This study also suggests that for recognition of the real peaks in H/V curves, the variation trend of dominant frequencies between the different measuring points in study area should be considered and each curve should not be evaluated individually.

Keywords

References

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Bulletin of Earthquake Science and Engineering
Volume 7, Issue 3 - Serial Number 24
November 2020
Pages 53-68

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History

  • Receive Date: 13 February 2019
  • Accept Date: 27 January 2021

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