Scattered Motion Example

October 15, 2018

Description
In the site response analysis example, a site consists of ve layers rested on an elastic bedrock
was analyzed and the free-eld responses of the top layer were determined. As an extension of
that example, a building with foundation dimensions of 40x60m was inserted in the soil with
a depth ratio (e/r) equals 0.5. The scattered motion at the foundation level was evaluated
considering the kinematic interaction only where the inertial interaction eect is assumed
to be negligible. The kinematic interaction was accounted for by evaluating the Base-slab
averaging eect and the embedment eect. Veletsos et al. (1989, and 1979) and Stewart et
al. (2003) equations were used to calculate the base-slab averaging eect and Elsabee and
Murray (1977) procedure was used to evaluate the embedment eect. In base-slab averaging
eect, two cases were studied: vertically incident incoherent waves and obliquely incident
coherent waves. For both cases, in addition to the embedment eect, the transfer functions
H(f ) (the ratio of the foundation input motion to the free-eld motion) of the translational
and rocking components were evaluated (Fig.1, 2, and 3). It should be mentioned that the
foundation input motion is taken as the product of the free-eld motion and the amplitude
of the base-slab averaging eect and the embedment eect.
The previous procedure is used if the free-eld motion takes the form of a time-history
response. If the available free-eld response is represented by a design response spectrum,
another procedure should be followed such as that recommended by Stewart et al. (2003).
(Approximate) If only a design response spectrum is available, the new spectral shape can
be evaluated by taking the product of the original spectrum and H(f ) for frequencies less
than 5 Hz and as the product of the original spectrum and |H(f = 5Hz)| for frequencies
greater than 5 Hz (the 5 Hz cuto frequency is approximate as recommended by Veletsos
and Prasad, 1989).
Notation
- uf im is the foundation input motion.
- ug is the free-eld motion.
- ae0 is the dimensionless frequency (Base-slab averaging, Stewart et al. 2003).
q
ae0 = a0 κ2a + sin2 αv (1)
- αv is the inclination angle of incident seismic waves with respect to vertical.
- a0 is the normalized frequency = ωr/Vs (Embedment eect).
- e is the embedment depth and r is the foundation radius.

1
 1 1

0.8 0.8
uf im /ug

uf im /ug
0.6 0.6
p

p
0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
ae0 ae0
Figure 1: Amplitude of transfer function between free-eld motion and FIM for vertically
incident incoherent waves (Base-slab averaging)

1 1
αv = 20
αv = 30
0.8 0.8
αv = 40
αv = 50
uf im /ug

uf im /ug

0.6 αv = 60 0.6
p

0.4 0.4 αv = 20
αv = 30
αv = 40
0.2 0.2 αv = 50
αv = 60

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
ae0 ae0
Figure 2: Amplitude of transfer functions between free-eld ground motion and FIM for
obliquely incident coherent waves (Base-slab averaging)

2
 1 0.25

0.8 0.2

0.6 0.15

rθf im /ug
uf im /ug

0.4 0.1

0.2 0.05

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
a0 a0
Figure 3: Amplitude of transfer functions between free-eld ground motion and FIM for
Embedment eect