• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.113-120
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• 2008

One-dimensional site response analysis is widely used to simulate the seismic site effects. The equivalent linear analysis, which is the most widely used type of site response analysis, is essentially a linear method. The method applies constant shear modulus and damping throughout the frequency range of the input motion, ignoring the dependence of the soil response on the loading frequency. A new type of equivalent linear analysis method that can simulate the frequency dependence of the soil behavior via frequency-strain curve was developed. Various forms of frequency-strain curves were proposed, and all curves were asserted to increase the accuracy of the solution. However, its validity has not been extensively proven and the effect of the shape of the frequency-strain curve is not known. This paper used two previously proposed frequency-strain curves and three additional curves developed in this study to evaluate the accuracy of the frequency-dependent equivalent linear method and the influence of the shape of the frequency-strain curves. In the evaluation, six recordings from three case histories were used. The results of the case study indicated that the shape of the frequency-strain curve has a dominant influence on the calculated response, and that the frequency dependent analysis can enhance the accuracy of the solution. However, a curve that results in the best match for all case histories did not exist and the optimum curve varied for each case. Since the optimum frequency-strain curve can not be defined, it is recommended that a suite of curves be used in the analysis.