SEGJ Technical Conference

Effect of non-linearity in soil smplification on synthetic strong motion by the empirical Green's function.

Abstract Empirical Green's function method has been often used in strong motion estimation. In particular this method is advantageous in evaluation of high-frequency ground motion. Since this method is based on the use of records from small earthquakes, the effect of the non-linearity of response during strong ground motion is not included in the synthetic motion. In this study, we estimated strong ground motion for the Niigataken Chuetsuoki Earthquake in 2007 using the empirical Greens function method, and compared the synthetic motions with the observed ones to identify the effects of non-linear amplification of seismic waves in shallow soil. It is found that the observed peak ground acceleration at soft soil site in the strong shaking is different from those at hard soil site indicating the non-linear effects, while the peak values are similar at soil and hard soil sites in weak shaking.