Period 5.

Site-Specific Seismic Analysis

Site-Specific Seismic Analysis

What is a site-specific seismic analysis? A site-specific seismic
analysis is a method to calculate the response of a column of soil
to shaking at its base caused by a design earthquake record to
determine the peak and spectral acceleration values that are
expected at the ground surface for structural design

How much shaking Soil Column

happens here?

Bedrock
Seismic wave propagating
from focus to top of bedrock

1
 Site-Specific Seismic Analysis
When would we want to do one? Results of a site-specific
seismic analysis may reveal that use design ground shaking
parameters derived from a simpler building code-based method
(e.g. truncated spectrum) are overly conservative, so use of the
site-specific parameters may result in less burdensome (and less
expensive) structural requirements for seismic design.
0.4
Spectral Acceleration (g)

0.3

0.2

0.1
Truncated Spectrum
Site-Specific Spectrum
0.0
2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8
0.01 0.1 1 10
Period (s)

Site-Specific Seismic Analysis

When are we required to do one? Site-specific seismic analyses
are required with any seismic site class F soil (e.g. liquefiable
soils) and may also be desirable in cases where special building
designs result in unique resonance characteristics for the
structure, or when unique soil conditions will likely result in large
amounts of amplification that would not appear on a simpler
truncated spectrum.

2
 How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
1. Characterize your site in terms of soil layering, soil type,
depth to bedrock and shear wave velocity for each layer.

Sand
20
(m)

40
Depth (ft)

Clay
Depth

60

80 Bedrock

100
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Shear Wave Velocity, vs (ft/s)
Shear Wave Velocity (m/s)

How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
2. Derive a target spectrum for your site.

0.4
Horizontal Spectral Acceleration (g)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3
0.01 0.1 1
Period (s)

3
 How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
3. Select a number (at least 6) of strong ground motion records
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)
0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3
0 20 40 60
Time (seconds)

How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
4. Scale the strong ground motion records to a peak ground
acceleration corresponding to a 2% probability of exceedance in a
50-year exposure period (a.k.a. the building code’s MCE with a
return period of 2,500 years)
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)

0.2 Unscaled

0.0

-0.2

0.2 Scaled to PGA of 0.091 g

-
0.0
-
-0.2
-
0 20 40 60
Time (seconds)

4
 How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
3. Derive response spectra from the strong ground motion
records to assure they match the target spectrum.

0.4
Mineral North-South
Mineral East-West
Horizontal Spectral Acceleration (g)

Greenbrier North-South
Greenbrier East-West
Bertrand North-South
Bertrand East-West
0.3 Average of the Six Spectra
USGS Target Spectrum

0.2

0.1

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3
0.01 0.1 1
Period (s)

How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
5. Select appropriate modulus reduction data for the different soil
types in your profile.

5
 How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
6. Perform numerical analyses to shake the model profile at the
bottom with the strong ground motion records and calculate
the response at the ground surface
Options include:

SHAKE91 (DOS-based 1-D equivalent linear)

EERA (SHAKE91 implemented as a Microsoft Excel macro)
Strata (SHAKE91 implemented as a PC-based program)

QUAKE/W (PC-based 2-D equivalent linear)

QUAD4M (PC-based 2-D equivalent linear)

nonlinear programs

How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
7. Calculate peak and spectral acceleration values at the
ground surface and calculate an average response spectrum
1.2
Greenbrier N-S
Greenbrier E-W
Mineral Main N-S
1.0
Spectral Acceleration (g)

Mineral Main E-W

Mineral After N-S
Mineral After E-W
Bertrand N-S
Bertrand E-W
0.8 NMSZ Stochastic
Average

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3
0.01 0.1 1
Period (s)

6
 How to do a Site-Specific
Seismic Analysis
8. Reduce the response spectrum by a factor of 2/3 to convert
from MCE to design ground shaking values
9. Compare the design spectrum to the truncated spectrum and
reduce the truncated spectral values by as much as 80% as
appropriate.
0.5
Average Site-Specific
Truncated Spectrum
Use for Design
Spectral Acceleration (g)

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 4 5 6 7
0.01 0.1 1 10
Period (s)