Effect of Seasonally Frozen Soil on Seismic Site Response

Abstract eng:
The existence of deep seasonally frozen soils might pose a serious problem in to structures supported by deep foundations. Moreover, in a highly active seismogenic zones, the presence of such layer might alter the ground response during any strong earthquakes. To understand the influence of the seasonally frozen layer on the ground motions, the impact of seasonal frost on the site response at one selected bridge site in the State of Alaska has been study by using 1-D wave propagation method. At this site, 1-D soil profile has been constructed based on the available geotechnical and geological information. The hazard-consistence bedrock motions have been estimated from the recorded ground motion data of several earthquakes occurred at different parts of the world in similar tectonic regime. The generated bedrock motions were then propagated through the soil column and the transfer function between the motions observed at bedrock and surface were computed. The parametric studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of thickness, depth and other physical properties of the frozen layers by comparing the computed transfer functions. The paper discusses the impact of seasonally frozen ground on the amplitude and shape of the site response spectrum.

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