Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2020

Abstract

Soil stiffness estimates are critical to geologic hazard and risk assessment in urban centers. Multichannel analysis of surface-wave (MASW) data collection along city streets is now a standard, cost-effective, and noninvasive soil stiffness approximation tool. With this approach, shear-wave velocities (VS) are derived from Rayleigh-wave signals. Although the current MASW practice is to neglect the effect of a high-velocity road layer on soil VS estimates, our models show measurable impacts on Rayleigh-wave amplitudes and phase velocities when seismic data are acquired on a road surface. Here, we compare synthetic models with field MASW and downhole VS measurements. Our modeling indicates that a road layer attenuates Rayleigh-wave signals across all frequencies, introduces coherent higher-mode signals, and leads to overestimated VS and VS30 values. We show that VS30 can be overestimated by more than 7% when soft soils underlie a rigid road surface. Inaccurate VS estimates can lead to improper soil classification and bias earthquake siteresponse estimates. For road-based MASW data analysis, we recommend incorporating a surface road layer in the Rayleigh-wave inversion to improve VS estimate accuracy with depth.

Copyright Statement

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, published by Seismological Society of America. Copyright restrictions may apply. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120190120. The content of this document may vary from the final published version.

Download

Share

COinS