Response analysis of soil deposit considering both frequency and strain amplitude dependencies using nonlinear causal hysteretic damping model

It is well known that the properties of the soil deposits, especially the damping, depend on both frequency and strain amplitude. Therefore it is important to consider both dependencies to calculate the soil response against earthquakes in order to estimate input motions to buildings. However, it has been difficult to calculate the seismic response of the soil considering both dependencies directly. The author has studied the time domain evaluation of the frequency dependent dynamic stiffness, and proposed a simple hysteretic damping model that satisfies the causality condition. In this paper, this model was applied to nonlinear analyses considering the effects of the strain amplitude dependency of the soil. The basic characteristics of the proposed method were studied using a two layered soil model. The response behavior was compared with the conventional model e.g. the Ramberg-Osgood model and the SHAKE model. The characteristics of the proposed model were studied with regard to the effects of element divisions and the frequency dependency that is a key feature of the model. The efficiency of the model was confirmed by these studies.