After a sudden rupture of the earths crust (caused by accumulating stresses, elastic strainenergy) a certain amount of energy radiates from the rupture as seismic waves. These waves are attenuated, refracted, and reflected as they travel through the earth, eventually reaching the surface where they cause ground shaking. The principal geotechnical hazards associated with this event are fault rupture, ground shaking, liquefaction and lateral spreading, and landsliding. Ground shaking is one of the principal seismic hazards that causes extensive damage to the built environment and failure of engineering systems over large areas.
Earthquake loads and their effects on structures are directly related to the intensity and duration of ground shaking. Similarly, the level of ground deformation, damage to earth structures and ground failures are closely related to the severity of ground shaking.
In engineering evaluations, three characteristics of ground shaking are typically considered:
i) the amplitude, ii) frequency content and iii) significant duration of shaking (time over which the ground motion has relatively significant amplitudes).These characteristics of the ground motion at a given site are affected by numerous complex factors such as the source mechanism, earthquake magnitude, rupture directivity, propagation path of seismic waves,
source distance and effects of local soil conditions. There are many unknowns and uncertainties associated with these issues which in turn result in significant uncertainties regarding the characteristics of the ground motion and earthquake loads.
If the random nature of response to earthquakes (aleatory uncertainty) cannot be avoided [1,2], it is our limited knowledge about the patterns between seismic events and their manifestations -ground motions- at a site (epistemic uncertainty) that must be improved thorough more scientific seismic analyses. A strategic factor in seismic hazard analysis is the ground motion model or attenuation relation. These attenuation relationships has been developed based on magnitude, distance and site category, however, there is a tendency to incorporate other parameters, which are now known to be significant, as the tectonic environment, style of faulting and the effects of topography, deep basin edges and rupture directivity. These distinctions are recognized in North America, Japan and New Zealand [3- 6], but ignored in most other regions of the world [7]. Despite recorded data suggest that ground motions depend, in a significant way, on these aspects, these inclusions did not have had a remarkable effect on the predictions confidence and the geotechnical earthquake engineer prefers the basic and clear-cut approximations on those that demand a blind use of coefficients or an intricate determination of soil/fault conditions.
A key practice in current aseismic design is to develop design spectrum compatible time histories. This development entails the modification of a time history so that its response spectrum matches within a prescribed tolerance level, the target design spectrum. In such matching it is important to retain the phase characteristics of the selected ground motion time history. Many of the techniques used to develop compatible motions do not retain the phase [8]. The response spectrum alone does not adequately characterize specific-fault ground motion. Near-fault ground motions must be characterized by a long period pulse of strong motion of a fairly brief duration rather than the stochastic process of long duration that characterizes more distant ground motions. Spectrum compatible with these specific motions will not have these characteristics unless the basic motion being modified to ensure compatibility has these effects included. Spectral compatible motions could match the entire spectrum but the problem arises on finding a real earthquake time series that match the specific nature of ground motion. For nonlinear analysis of structures, spectrum compatible motions should also correspond to the particular energy input [9], for this reason, designers should be cautious about using spectrum compatible motions when estimating the displacements of embankment dams and earth structures under strong shaking, if the acceptable performance of these structures is specified by criteria based on tolerable displacements.
Another important seismic phenomenon is the liquefaction. Liquefaction is associated with significant loss of stiffness and strength in the shaken soil and consequent large ground deformation. Particularly damaging for engineering structures are cyclic ground movements during the period of shaking and excessive residual deformations such as settlements of the ground and lateral spreads. Ground surface disruption including surface cracking,
dislocation, ground distortion, slumping and permanent deformations, large settlements and lateral spreads are commonly observed at liquefied sites. In sloping ground and backfills behind retaining structures in waterfront areas, liquefaction often results in large permanent ground displacements in the down-slope direction or towards waterways (lateral spreads). Dams, embankments and sloping ground near riverbanks where certain shear strength is required for stability under gravity loads are particularly prone to such failures. Clay soils may also suffer some loss of strength during shaking but are not subject to boils and other classic liquefaction phenomena. For intermediate soils, the transition from sand like to clay-like behavior depends primarily on whether the soil is a matrix of coarse grains with fines contained within the pores or a matrix of plastic fines with coarse grained filler. Recent papers by Boulanger and Idriss [10, 11] are helpful in clarifying issues surrounding the liquefaction and strain softening of different soil types during strong ground shaking. Engineering judgment based on good quality investigations and data interpretation should be used for classifying such soils as liquefiable or non-liquefiable.
Procedures for evaluating liquefaction, potential and induced lateral spread, have been studied by many engineering committees around the world. The objective has been to review research and field experience on liquefaction and recommended standards for practice. Youd and Idriss [12] findings and the liquefaction-resistance chart proposed by Seed et al. [13] in 1985, stay as standards for practice. They have been slightly modified to adjust new registered input-output conditions and there is a strong tendency to recommend i) the adoption of the cone penetration test CPT, standard penetration test SPT or the shear wave velocities for describing the in situ soil conditions [14] and ii) the modification of magnitude factors used to convert the critical stress ratios from the liquefaction assessment charts (usually developed for M7:5) to those appropriate for earthquakes of diverse magnitudes [12, 15].
