Experimental and analytical study of seismic site response of discontinuous permafrost

• Main Authors: Dadfar, Behrang, El Naggar, M. Hesham, Nastev, Miroslav
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2016
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/72826; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cgj-2015-0223

Seismic site response of discontinuous permafrost is discussed. The presence of frozen portions in soil deposits can significantly affect their dynamic response due to stiffer conditions characterized by higher shear wave velocities compared to unfrozen soils. Both experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to examine the problem. The experimental program included a series of 1g shaking table tests on small-scale models. Nonlinear numerical analyses were performed employing the FLAC software. The numerical model was verified using the obtained experimental results. Parametric simulations were then conducted using the verified model in order to study the variations of the free-field spectral accelerations (on top of the frozen and unfrozen soil blocks) with the scheme of frozen/unfrozen soil, and to determine the key parameters and their effects on the seismic site response. The results showed that spectral accelerations were generally higher in frozen soils than in unfrozen soils. It was found that the shear wave velocity of the frozen soil, the assumed geometry of the blocks and their spacing have significant impact on the site response. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.