Seismic Responses of Irregular Ground –Four Decades of Development from Theory to Observation

Abstract eng:
The seismic response of the ground is controlled by the source characteristics, path effects, and local site conditions. Among them local site conditions may have the largest impact on both the characteristics and the levels of seismic motions. In this review the summary our four decades of development on irregular ground responses will be provided. In 1970s digital computers had emerged to be a powerful tool to calculate theoretical responses of irregular grounds. Ever since numerical techniques have been developed and applied to simulate actual basin responses with irregular configurations. Prof. Takuji Kobori and his colleague was one of the pioneering groups working on the seismic responses of irregular grounds. In the same era relatively long period, later arrivals have started to be observed. In 1985 the Michoacan, Mexico earthquake occurred and extraordinarily long-lasting motions inside the Mexico City Basin had caused quite extensive damages to high-rise buildings. In 1995 the Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake occurred and mysterious damage concentration, the so-called “damage belt”, was formed. After these tragedies many studies had been performed to find that irregular ground responses were the key. The history of four decades on irregular ground effect studies suggests that both theoretical and observational studies are equally important so that we must promote them further to archive our goal, that is, quantitative prediction of strong ground motions.

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