4th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering Taipei, Taiwan October 12-13, 2006 Paper No.

025

SEISMIC RESPONSE OF SOIL SITES IN HONG KONG BY NUMERICAL MODELING

Yuk-Lung Wong1, Yi-Fan Yun2, Xun Guo2 and John X. Zhao3

ABSTRACT We present numerical modelling results for three typical soil sites in Hong Kong subjected to a large number of rock site ground motions. The sites selected are naturally deposited colluvium and alluvium sites (Group I and II Sites), and reclaimed soil sites with layers of soft marine deposit (Group III Sites). The rock site motions selected are from both intra- and interplate earthquakes with PGAs from 0.005g to 0.25g. Our results show that variation of normalized spectra is not always consistent with increasing rock site shaking levels, and exhibits a very large scatter at most spectral periods. Variation of peak ground accelerations (PGA) shows that soil nonlinearity is unlikely to cause PGA deamplification in most soil sites in Hong Kong for a rock site excitation with a PGA of 0.1g or less. For a soil site without soft marine deposit layers, mean spectral ratios are likely to be significantly large than 1.0 for all periods and can be as high as about 3.0 at first modal period of a site. For a site on reclaimed land with soft marine deposit layers, deamplification can possibly occur in a period range of 0.2-1.0s but significant amplification at periods beyond 1.0s is observed from our numerical results. Mean amplification ratios of soil sites with soft marine deposit layers can be in a range of 1.5 2.5 at the first modal period of the site. This level of amplification would lead seismic load as the control design load for many buildings in soft soil sites in Hong Kong. Keywords: Seismic response, Soil sites in Hong Kong, Numerical modeling

INTRODUCTION Recently, engineering and research communities in Hong Kong recognized potential amplification of seismic ground motion in Hong Kong soil sites. Wong and Pun (1997) carried out a pilot study on seismic amplification by modeling a small number of soil sites using a limited number of strong motion records from overseas rock sites. Wong et al. (1998) analyzed microtremor records to identify site resonant frequencies and possible amplification potentials of soil sites in Hong Kong. Wong & Zhao (2000) and Wong et al. (2000) recommended an attenuation model by Crouse & McQuire (1996) as a possible basis for seismic hazard analyses for Hong Kong and they also presented amplification factors for various site classes. In this paper, we present our numerical study on possible effects of soil site amplification in Hong Kong by using soil site numerical models that were established from borehole data, measured in-situ shear wave velocities and results of dynamic soil tests (Wong et al. 2000).

1 2

Research Centre for Urban Hazards Mitigation, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. email: ceylwong@polyu.edu.hk Institute of Engineering Mechanics, Harbin, China 3 Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Ltd., Lower Hutt, New Zealand

There are a number of uncertainties involved in assessing soil site responses by numerical modeling. In order to evaluate a large number of sites with very limited information of soil dynamic properties, we adopted simple 1-dimensional for analysis, using a fully nonlinear program DENSOR98 (Larkin 1998). Large uncertainties are also associated with selections of input ground motions. It is well known that frequency contents of a recorded ground motion from a rock site depend on earthquake magnitude, source distance and site conditions of the recording stations (typically soft and hard rock sites). In our study, we selected a large number of strong motion data to account for the uncertainty in future possible rock site motions in Hong Kong. We selected records from both interplate regions, for example, California, and intraplate regions, for example, the eastern North America and northern China. We divided rock site records into a number of groups according to the values of peak ground accelerations (PGA) and each group is further divided into two sub-groups according to source distances. SITE GEOTECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONS We carried out numerical analysis of ten soil sites in Hong Kong (see Figure 1). For every site, we selected about 40 typical boreholes and these boreholes are usually distributed along coastal lines and perpendicular to the coastal lines or nearly uniformly cover a site inland. We found that these sites could be largely divided into 3 groups, with representative borehole soil profiles shown in Figure 2. Mid-level (ML-2) or similar sites on hill is a typical Group I Site has soil layer thickness less than 20m. Yuen Long (YL-1) is a typical Group II Site which has soil layer thickness more than 20m without a thick layer of soft soils, such as marine deposit. Tseng Kwan O (TKO-2) belongs to a Group III Site. It is a reclaimed site of soil layer thickness more than 20m, sandwiched with a soft layer (marine deposit) of thickness greater than 5m. STRONG MOTION DATA SETS Recent seismic hazard studies (Lee et al. 1998, Pun and Ambrasseys 1992 and Scott et al. 1994) suggested peak ground accelerations on rock sites in a range of 0.08-0.12g for a 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years and about 0.2g for a 3% probability of exceedance in 50 years. We selected strong ground motion records with PGAs in a range of 0.005-0.25g, and selected ground motion records with epicentral distances of 5-325km. The records were further divided into two types. Type I records included those with relatively low response spectral values at long periods and they are usually within 50 km of epicentral distance, d, from small or moderate magnitude earthquakes. For type II records, majority of them were at d beyond 50 km. Most records we selected are from free field and all records are P-wave triggered. NORMALIZED SPECTRA CALCULATED FOR SOIL SITES In order to present the effects of site parameters and rock motion characteristics on the frequency contents of soil site ground motion, we present normalized spectra of ground surface response estimated by numerical modeling for each type of sites, i.e., the calculated spectrum divided by the peak ground acceleration calculated for the soil site. The shapes of normalized spectra reflect the frequency contents of the input excitation and frequency dependent amplification effects 1. Effects of sites Figure 3 shows the individual normalized response spectra and the mean normalized response spectra for the three sites (ML-2, YL-1, TKO-2) subjected to various Type II bedrock excitations with bedrock PGA ranging from 21 to 80 gal, and d more than 50 km. The scatter is quite large. In particular, the TKO-2 site that has a thick soft soil layers is very sensitive to input excitations. The corresponding individual spectra vary significantly; with the values ranging from 0.5 to 4.2 at the

period of 1.6 seconds (see Figure 3c). The scatter is also due to different frequency contents of bedrock motions. We find that the patterns of mean normalized spectra of ML-2 and YL-1 sites are similar. They both have the maximum mean normalized spectrum value of 4 when the period is about 0.4 second. Thereafter, the mean normalized spectrum values monotonically decrease, down to unity when the period is about 0.8 second. However, the mean normalized spectrum of TKO-2 site has two peak values, both of about 2.5, at the periods of 0.2 seconds and 1.3 seconds respectively. Beyond 1.3 seconds, the spectrum values gently decrease, and reach unity at the period of 2.3 seconds. Such unusual pattern has an impact on the codified design response spectra that will be addressed later. 2. Effects of level of input excitations Figure 4 shows the mean normalized spectra for type II input records beyond 50 km epicentral distances and the records with PGA in different ranges produce very different spectra shapes for TKO2 site that has thick soft soil layers. At long periods, the spectra values increase with the levels of excitations, for PGA ranging from 5 to 120 gal. However, for the records with PGA of 121-250 gal, the corresponding spectra values appear to be smaller than those derived from the slightly lower PGA (81-120 gal) records. 3. Effects of nonlinear properties of soil We also studied the effects of variation of soil and rock dynamic properties on normalized response spectra, and found that the results were sensitive to soil nonlinear characteristics, in terms of shear modulus and damping ratio. Figure 5 shows the spectra of TKO-2 site using the shear modulus and damping ratio established from the published models (Stokoe & Sun) and our laboratory test results (Wong et al. 2000) respectively. The shapes of the two spectra are similar, but the one using the published models has higher response than the other at the period of 1.4 second. Therefore, it is desirable to perform more dynamic tests on local soils to confirm our test models so that a lower response spectrum might be adopted with confidence. 4. Comparison with EN 1998-5: 2004 seismic design code We have compared our spectra with those proposed in the EN 1998-5: 2004 and the results are shown in Figure 3. In the figure, our mean spectra are indicated in dark solid lines and the codified design spectra for different ground classes are indicated in light colour lines. It should be noted that the sites ML-2 and YL-1 are classified as Ground Type C, and TKO-2 is classified as Ground Type S in the code. It appears that for the ML-2 and YL-1 sites, our mean spectra basically are consistent with those of the design code for periods beyond the corner period (about 0.6 second). For the periods less than the corner period, our spectra values are higher than the code values. In case of the TKO-2 site, our spectra show remarkable amplification for periods beyond 1 second, with the peak value at about 1.4 second, which is significantly greater than the corner periods of Ground Types A to E proposed in the code. As mentioned in the code, special studies for the definition of the seismic action are sought for Ground Type S sites. PGA AMPLIFICATION The PGA amplifications of the three groups of sites are presented in Figure 6. Figure 6a shows the soil-rock site PGA for the ML-2 site (Group I). On average, the amplification ratios are 2.4, 2.2 and 1.9 at excitation PGA of 0.05g, 0.1g and 0.2g respectively. Nonlinear effects are not very significant

at an excitation PGA of 0.1g. Figure 6b shows the PGA amplifications for the YL-1 site (Group II). The soil nonlinear effects are much more significant than those for the ML-2 site, with average amplification ratios being 2.7, 2.2 and 1.67 at excitation PGA of 0.05g, 0.1g and 0.2g respectively. Figure 6c shows the PGA amplifications for the TKO-2 site (group III). For this site, nonlinear effects are very significant because of a layer of marine deposit. The cross over point, at which soil site PGA are equal to rock site PGA, is at about 0.093g of excitation PGA for the mean curve and is 0.125g for mean + curve. We did not attempt to evaluate the site response for excitations with PGA larger than 0.35g as this is likely to be much higher than the possible rock site motions for Hong Kong. CONCLUSIONS In this study, following conclusions can be reached: 1. Normalized response spectra of the soil sites evaluated by numerical modeling depend heavily on the frequency contents of the rock site excitation records, as expected. For all three types of soil sites, far field rock site motion records (Type II) with rich intermediate and long period contents generate different response spectral shapes having much higher values than those by near field rock site motion records (Type I) for periods beyond 0.3 second. Despite considerably large scatter of individual normalized response generated from different bedrock records, the mean normalized response spectra can still reflect the characteristic of seismic response of the sites. 2. Group I and II sites (ML-2 and YL-1) both have the maximum mean normalized response spectrum value of 4 at the corner period of about 0.4 second. Group III sites (TKO-2) have two peak mean normalized response spectrum values of about 2.5 at the periods of 0.2 and 1.3 second (corner period). 3. From the comparison of the mean normalized response spectra with design response spectra of EN 1998-1: 2004 seismic code, it appears that the codified corner periods and spectral shapes beyond the corner period agree with our mean normalized spectra for the Group I and II sites. For the Group III site which falls into Ground Type S of the code, special studies for seismic actions are required, as recommended in the design code. 4. The results in the present study show that for deep soil sites and soil sites with soft marine deposit layers in Hong Kong, soil site amplification at long periods (beyond 1.0s) is significant and mean amplification ratios for Hong Kong design motions are likely to be between 1.5 and 2.5. This level of amplification would lead seismic load as the control design load for many buildings in soft soil sites in Hong Kong. REFERENCES BS EN 1998-1: 2004. Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance Part 1: General rules, seismic actions and rules for buildings. Larkin, T.J. (1998), DENSOR98 A computer program for seismic analysis of nonlinear horizontally soil layers. Lee, C.F., Y.Z. Ding, R.H. Huang, Y.B. Yu, G.A. Guo, P.L. Chen and X.H. Huang (1998), Seismic hazard analysis of the Hong Kong region, Geo Report No. 65, Geotechnical Engineering Office and Civil Engineering Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Pun, W.K. & Ambraseys, N.N. (1992), Earthquake Data Review and Seismic Hazard Analysis for the Hong Kong Region. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Vol. 21, pp1-11. Scott, D.M., Pappin, J.W. and Kwok, M.K.Y. (1994), Seismic Design of Buildings in Hong Kong, The HKIE Transactions, Vol. 1, No. 2, 37-50. Stokoe, K.H., and Lodde, P.F., (1978) Dynamic response of San Francisco bay mud, Proceedings, ASCE Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Vol.2, pp.940-.

Sun, J., Golesorkhi, R. and Seed, H.B. (1988) Dynamic moduli and damping ratios for cohesive soils, Report No. UCB/EERC-88/15, Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, University of California, Berkeley. Wong, A.C.W and Pun,(1997) Pilot study of effects of soil amplification of seismic ground motions in Hong Kong, Technical Note, TN 5/97, GEO, Civil Engineering Department, Hong Kong. Wong, Y.L. and Zhao, J.X. (2000), Investigation of attenuation characteristics of strong ground motions in China and Hong Kong region, Paper 179, 12WCEE. Wong, Y.L., Zhao, J.X., Lam, E. S. S. and Chau, K.T. (1998), Assessing seismic response of soft soil sites in Hong Kong by using microtremor records, Hong Kong Institute of Engineers, Transactions, Group 1, 5(3), pp.70-79. Wong, Y.L., Guo, X., Lui, J., Yuan, Y.F., Zhao, J.X., and Yin, J.H. (2000), Investigation of seismic response of soil sites in Hong Kong: Part I Preliminary results of shear wave velocity measurement and dynamic testing of soils, Hong Kong Insititute of Engineers Transactions, 7(3), pp. 19-27.

Figure 1 Locations of soil sites under investigation

Figure 2 Typical borehole soil profiles for ML, YL and TKO sites

Figure 3 Comparison of mean normalized response spectra of three sites with codified design response spectra

Figure 4 Mean normalized response spectra of TKO-2 site under rock site excitations with PGAs in different ranges beyond 50 km of epicentral distance

Figure 5 Comparison of normalized response spectra using different shear modulus-strain curves

Figure 6 PGA amplifications of three sites