• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.189-206
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• 2011

Amplification based on empirical relations is widely used for seismic microzonation of urban centers. Amplifications are used to represent the site effects of a particular soil column. Many empirical correlations are available to estimate the amplification of seismic waves. These correlations are based on the ratio of shear wave velocity of foundation/rock to soil velocity or 30 m equivalent shear wave velocity ($Vs^{30}$) and are developed considering deep soil data. The aim of this work is to examine the applicability of available amplification relations in the literature for shallow engineering bedrock sites by carrying out site response studies. Shear wave velocity of thirteen sites having shallow engineering bedrock have been selected for the study. In these locations, the depth of engineering bedrock (> 760 ${\pm}$ 60 m/s) is matched with the drilled bore hole. Shear wave velocity (SWV) has been measured using Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave survey. These sites are classified according to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) classification system. Amplifications for an earthquake are arrived for these sites using empirical relations and measured SWV data. Site response analysis has been carried out in SHAKE using SWV and using synthetic and real earthquake data. Amplification from site response analysis and empirical relations are compared. Study shows that the amplification arrived using empirical relations does not match with the site response amplification. Site response amplification is much more than empirical values for same shear wave velocity.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2017

Observed ground motions are composed of three factors such as, seismic source, attenuation, and site amplification effect. Among them, the site amplification characteristics should be considered significantly when estimating seismic source and attenuation characteristics with more confidence. The site effect is also necessary when estimating not only seismic hazard in seismic design engineering but also rock mechanical properties. This study uses the method of H/V spectral ratio of observed ground motion between target site and reference site called a reference site method. In addition to using the vertical Fourier spectrum of the reference site, we try out the horizontal Fourier spectrum as a new method in this study. We analyze H/V spectral ratio of six ground motions respectively, observed at four sites close to Yedang Reservoir. We then compare site amplification effects at each site using 3 kinds of seismic energies including S waves, Coda waves energy, and background noise. The results suggest that each site showed similar site amplification patterns in S waves and Coda waves energy. However, the site amplification of background noise shows much different characteristics from those of S waves and Coda wave energy, which suggests that the background noises at each site have their own developing mechanism. Each station shows its own characteristics of specific resonance frequency and site amplification properties in low, high and specific resonance frequency ranges. Comparison of the method used in this study to the others that used different methods can provide us with more information about the dynamic amplification of a site characteristics and site classification.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.51-58
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• 2002

The relative site amplification factors in southern Korea were determined from coda waves using coda normalization method. The seismograms of 15 events at 79 stations were used in this study. Seismogram envelopes were obtained by the Hilbert transform of bandpass-filtered velocity seismograms with frequency bands at 1-2Hz, 2-4Hz, 4-8Hz, 8-l6Hz and 16-32Hz. The envelopes were stabilized by application of moving-average scheme with time window of 1 second. The relative amplitudes of seismogram envelope were computed by dividing the amplitude of seismogram envelope at one site by the amplitude of seismogram envelope at reference site. The relative site amplification factors were obtained by taking averages of the relative amplitude. Values of relative site amplification factors in southern Korea are generally low in western area and high in eastern area.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.810-823
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• 2009

One of the critical factors in accurate determination of earthquake source parameters, and in prediction of seismic hazards is the detailed information related to the site amplification characteristics. The site amplification characteristics of the broad-band seismic stations in Korea were estimated as a function of frequency in the range of 0.2 to 20 Hz. A total of 1275 seismograms recorded from 43 earthquakes observed from 2003 to 2008 in the southern Korean Peninsula were used. It was found that the site amplification ratios for 28 stations estimated from the inversion of the ground motion model were approximately concordant with those obtained from the horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio except for some stations. The spectral site amplification characteristics obtained in this study did not show any considerable spatial distribution. It revealed to be largely correlated with the degree of weathering rather than the basement rock type. Considering the spectral site amplification ratio, 28 broad-band stations were classified into four groups and the characteristics of each group were described in the text.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.399-408
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• 2012

To estimate seismic source and soil-structure interaction more reliably, site amplification characteristics should be considered. Among the various estimation methods, we used Nakamura's method (1989) to estimate site amplification. This method was originally applied to background noise; however, it has recently been successfully applied to S-wave and Coda-wave energy, and is applied to S-waves in the present study. We used more than 180 observed ground motions from 23 macro-earthquakes and then analyzed site amplification characteristics at eight seismic stations. Each station showed characteristics of site amplification properties in the low-, high- and resonance-frequency ranges. Comparison of the present results with those of other studies provide successful information regarding the dynamic amplification of domestic site characteristics and site classification.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.40-51
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• 2016

The problem has been pointed out that the domestic design response spectrum does not reflect site amplification, particularly in the high frequency bands, including the fact that site specific response spectrum from the observed ground motions appears relatively higher than design response spectrum. Among various methods, this study applied H/V spectral ratio of ground motion for estimating site amplification. This method, originated from S waves and Rayleigh waves, recently has been extended to Coda waves and background noise for estimating site amplification. For limited time of periods, 4 electric substation sites had operated seismic stations at two separate locations (bedrock and borehole) within each substation site. H/V spectral ratio of S wave, Coda wave, and background noise, was applied to 36 accelerations of 3 macro earthquakes (Odaesan, Jeju and Gongju earthquakes), larger than magnitude 3.4. observed simultaneously at each bedrock location within 4 electric substation sites. Site amplifications at the bedrock location of 4 sites were compared among S wave, Coda wave energy, and background noise, and then compared to the previous results from the borehole location data. The site classification was also tried using resonancy frequency information at each site and location. The results suggested that all the electric substation sites showed similar site amplification patterns among S wave, Coda wave, and background noise. Each station showed its own characteristics of site amplification property in low, high and specific resonance frequency ranges. Comparison of this study to other results using different method can give us much more information about dynamic amplification of domestic sites characteristics and site classification.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

A new site classification system and site coefficients based on local site conditions in Korea were developed and implemented as a part of minimum design load requirements for general seismic design. The new site classification system adopted bedrock depth and average shear wave velocity of soil above the bedrock as parameters for site classification. These code provisions were passed through a public hearing process before it was enacted. The public hearing process recommended to modify the naming of site classes and adjust the amplification factors so that the level of short-period amplification is suitable for economical seismic design. In this paper, the new code provisions were assessed using dynamic centrifuge tests and by comparing the design response spectra (DRS) with records from 2016 Gyeongju earthquake, the largest earthquake in history of instrumental seismic observation in Korea. The dynamic centrifuge tests were performed to simulate the representative Korean site conditions, such as shallow depth to bedrock and short-period amplification characteristics, and the results corroborated with the new DRS. The Gyeongju earthquake records also showed good agreement with the DRS. In summary, the new code provisions are reliable for representing the site amplification characteristic of shallow bedrock condition in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.632-642
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• 2015

Seismograms are composed of 3 characteristics, that is, seismic source, attenuation, and site amplification. Among them, site amplification characteristics should be considered significantly to estimate seismic source and attenuation characteristics with more confidence. This purpose of this study is to estimate the site amplification characteristics at each site using horizontal to vertical (H/V) spectral ratio method. This method, originally proposed by Nakamura (1989), has been applied to study the surface waves in microtremor records. It has been recently extended to the shear wave energy of strong motion and applied to the study of site amplification. This study analyzed the H/V spectral ratio of 6 ground motions respectively using observed data from 4 sites nearby in Yedang Reservoir. And then, site amplification effects at each site, from 3 kinds of seismic energies, that is, S waves, Coda waves energy, and background noise were compared each other. The results suggested that 4 sites showed its own characteristics of site amplification property in specific resonance frequency ranges (YDS: ~11 Hz, YDU: ~4 Hz, YDD: ~7 Hz). Comparison of this study to other studies using different analysis method can give us much more information about dynamic amplification of domestic sites characteristics and site classification.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.169-193
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• 2015

This paper is the second part of the study for determining the seismic behavior of soil systems. The aim of this part is to present solution approaches for determining seismic site amplification. For this purpose, two solution techniques are used. The first technique is equivalent linear analysis which is mostly used in literature. The other technique is real time parameter updating approach and this approach uses the possibilities of Simulink effectively. A graphical user interfaced (GUI) program called DTASSA standing for Discrete-Time Analysis of Seismic Site Amplification is developed. In DTASSA, automatic block diagram producing system is developed and seismic site amplification for multiple soil layers may easily be investigated in real time. Numerical applications have been carried out to check the reliability of developed algorithm. The results of DTASSA are compared with SUA, EERA and NERA programs for the particular example problems.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.135-141
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• 2009

For more reliable estimation of soil-structure interaction and seismic source and attenuation properties, site amplification function should be considered. This study use the Nakamura's method (1989) for estimating site amplification though various methods for the same purpose have been proposed. This method was originally applied to the surface waves of background noise and therefore there are some limitation for applications to general wave energy. However, recently this method has been extended and applied to the S wave energy successfully. This study applied the method to the coda wave energy which is equivalent to the backscattered S wave energy. We used more than 60 observed ground motions from 5 earthquakes which occurred recently, with magnitude range from 3.6 to 5.1 Each station showed characteristic site amplification property in low-, high- and resonance frequency ranges. In the case of comparing these results to those from S wave energy, lots of information to the site classification work can be gained. Moreover, removal of site amplification can give us more reliable seismic source parameters.