Vibrations in soils: A spectral prediction method

Dynamic site amplification and soil classification are important issues related to earthquake engineering. While most of the studies are dedicated to engineering seismology and earthquake engineering, similar approaches for soil classification and site amplification have not been yet fully established in the field of urban vibrations. In this study, several parameters of a given site have been investigated to synthetically describe the geometrical and mechanical properties that control the amplification phenomena (i.e. average velocity and velocity gradient-based proxy). The results of FEM analyses of wave propagation have been processed in the frequency domain and analysed with respect to the proposed parameters and the distance from the source. Finally, the velocity-gradient-based parameters coupled to the spectral analysis can be considered as a coherent methodology for reliable vibration predictions and site classification in order to assess vibration sensitivity.