Simulation of rate dependent soil behavior in one-dimensional seismic wave propagation

Abstract

There has been a significant development in the numerical modeling capability of soils, allowing simulation of complex behavior of soils such as nonlinearity, anisotropy, and pore pressure generation. However, most soil models fail in modeling the rate dependency and it has been ignored in most seismic wave propagation analyses. This paper develops a rate dependent model based on available laboratory data, which can model both rate dependent shear modulus and damping. The model is implemented in a one-dimensional equivalent linear site response analysis program and used to perform a suite of analyses. The analysis results show that rate-dependent damping can have a pronounced influence on propagated weak ground motion, but a secondary influence on propagated strong motion.