Assessment of the vertical distribution on seismic ground motion

It is very important for the facilities such as nuclear power plants to inf er seismic force loading on the earthquake stability assessment of the buil ding foundation and the surrounding slope. The purpose of this paper was to propose a method to evaluate underground seismic coefficients, taking into account dynamic response along the depth in horizontally multi-layered gro und. The dynamic property of the seismic coefficient was analyzed on the ba sis of earthquake records observed at hard and soft rock sites mostly found in Tertiary deposits and sedimentary ground sites of the Pleistocene and H olocene epoch. The evaluation methods of a vertical distribution on undergr ound seismic coefficients were proposed for a few calculation methods on th e classified layered ground. Extended evaluation for underground seismic co efficients was confirmed with respect to some multi-layered ground during s trong motion. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.