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Interaction of geometry and mechanical property of trapezoidal sedimentary basins with incident SH waves

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Abstract

This paper investigated the effects of basin geometry and material property on the response of 2D trapezoidal sediment-filled basin to incident plane SH waves. Ten basin configurations with different geometries were developed, and then their seismic responses to both Ricker wavelets and seismic records were simulated by using an explicit finite difference scheme. The definition of deep/shallow basin, the precondition for the observation of prominent surface waves and the influential area of edge effects of the shallow basin were discussed quantitatively in this study. The followings were concluded: in the common velocity contrast range (v s1/v s2 < 10), the fundamental frequency a basin with W/H > 3.0 can be estimated approximately by 1D theory. The complexity of peak ground acceleration distribution pattern, the width of the most affected section as well as the amplitude of ground motion in the Edge Region increase with incident frequency. Prominent surface waves can only be observed when the incident wavelength is shorter than the critical wavelength λ c . The interaction between incident wave and basin dynamic property plays a dominant role on the peak ground acceleration amplitude while the interaction between incident wave and geometry plays a more significant role on the peak ground acceleration distribution. For very shallow basin, different areas along the basin width are affected to different extents. Only a limited area close to the basin edge is influenced significantly. It is more feasible to propose spectral aggravation factor for different surface zones respectively than a uniform constant as a tool to calibrate the 1D-based design spectrum so as to take the basin effects into account.

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Acknowledgments

This study is partially sponsored by the China Scholarship Council and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The first author would like to acknowledge their support for this research and at the same time express his sincere gratitude to Prof. Pitilakis K. and Dr. Riga E. (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) as well as Prof. Chávez García F.J. (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico) for their face-to-face discussions with the first author on this research, and the assistance of Prof. Bard P.Y. (University Joseph Fourier-Grenoble, France) and Prof. Zhang J. (Southwest Jiaotong University, China) via email.

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  1. School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Chuanbin Zhu & David Thambiratnam

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  1. Chuanbin Zhu
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  2. David Thambiratnam
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Correspondence to Chuanbin Zhu.

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Table 2 Real seismic records used as input motion
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Zhu, C., Thambiratnam, D. Interaction of geometry and mechanical property of trapezoidal sedimentary basins with incident SH waves. Bull Earthquake Eng 14, 2977–3002 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-016-9938-z

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