Nonlinearity in the response of soils in the 1995 Kobe earthquake in vertical components of records

摘要

Strong motion records provided by seismic vertical arrays allow estimation of stress-strain relations in soils at depths from the surface to the location of the deepest device. As an example, time-dependent nonlinear soil behavior was estimated in vertical components of records obtained in the epicentral area of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Degradation of the rigidity of soils in the strong motion was observed. The constructed nonlinear models of the soil behavior were used for estimating the nonlinear parts in the ground response by the nonlinear system identification technique. Nonlinear parts in the ground response were found to be as high as ～ 50% at 2 km from the fault and ～ 10% at 6-15 km from the fault plane. Odd types of nonlinearity, such as cubic, the fifth, seventh, etc. order, were found to be typical for soils, whereas, nonlinearities of even types are usually weak, but increase in liquefied soils.