Institution: | a Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, B. Gruzinskaya 10, Moscow 123995, Russian Federation b Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan |
Abstract: | 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. |