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From Non-invasive Site Characterization to Site Amplification: Recent Advances in the Use of Ambient Vibration Measurements

Part of the book series: Geotechnical, Geological, and Earthquake Engineering ((GGEE,volume 17))

Abstract

A series of investigations has been carried out over the last decade in Europe aimed at deriving quantitative information on site amplification from non-invasive techniques, based principally on surface wave interpretations of ambient noise measurements. The present paper focuses on their key outcomes regarding three main topics. First, methodological, hardware and software developments focusing on the acquisition and the processing of both single point and array microtremor measurements, led to an efficient tool with in situ control and processing, giving rise to robust and reproducible results. A special attention has been devoted to the derivation and use of the Rayleigh wave ellipticity. Second, the reliability of these new tools has been assessed through a thorough comparison with borehole measurements for a representative – though limited – set of sites located in Southern Europe, spanning from stiff to soft, and shallow to thick. Finally, correlations between the site parameters available from such non-invasive techniques, and the actual site amplification factors as measured with standard techniques, are derived from a comprehensive analysis of the Japanese KIKNET data. This allows to propose alternative, simple site characterization providing an improved variance reduction compared with the “classical” VS30 classification. While these results could pave the road for the next generation of building codes, they can also be used now for regulatory site classification and microzonation studies, in view of improved mapping and estimation of site amplification factors, and for the characterization of existing strong motion sites.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Multi-channel analysis of surface waves.

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Acknowledgments

The developments reported here were made possible through several European grants (SESAME # EVG1-CT-2000-00026, NERIES (NEtwork of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology, # RII3-CT-2006-026130, and the ITSAK-GR, Transfer of Knowledge Marie-Curie action, # MTKD-CT-2005-029627), complemented with several national research grants in France (ANR QSHA), Germany, Greece and Switzerland. Seismograms and geotechnical information used for the derivation of “SAPE” were collected from the Japanese KiK-net network (http://www.kik.bosai.go.jp); thanks are due to the KiK-net network staff and to F. Bonilla and G. Pousse for providing the ready-to-use data.

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Bard, PY. et al. (2010). From Non-invasive Site Characterization to Site Amplification: Recent Advances in the Use of Ambient Vibration Measurements. In: Garevski, M., Ansal, A. (eds) Earthquake Engineering in Europe. Geotechnical, Geological, and Earthquake Engineering, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9544-2_5

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