Publication Date:
2002-01-01
Description:
A revision is presently under way to upgrade the status of the 'Design recommendations for earthquake resistance of structures', commonly referred to as Eurocode 8 (or EC8). In order to improve the definition of the design elastic response spectra (ERS) as defined in the Eurocode 8 - Part 1 (Draft May 2001), the values of the soil amplification factors have been calculated for sites on sedimentary soils, both stiff (category B) and soft (category C), with respect to rock sites (category A), such as contemplated in EC8. The work was performed by a systematic study of response spectra as a function of magnitude and site conditions, using records from the European Strong-Motion Database. The results confirm the occurrence of systematic spectral amplification on sedimentary soils with respect to reference rock in a large set of European strong motion data. Such amplification has been quantified through a measure derived from the Housner Spectrum Intensity definition. The values of the soil coefficients recommended in the current version of EC 8 are shown to be realistic for category C, in the case of a moderate seismicity context. However the values for subsoil class B need to be significantly increased both for the moderate and high seismicity context.
Print ISSN:
1383-4649
Electronic ISSN:
1573-157X
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
