Identification of nonlinear site response using the H/V spectral ratio method

Abstract

The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio has become increasingly popular in studies of site effect and determination of the predominant period of a site. In this study, this method is extended to identify nonlinear soil responses. To establish this phenomenon, borehole array records that already showed nonlinear site responses using spectral ratios between surface and borehole station pairs were analyzed. Moreover, in this study, the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method was applied to weak and strong motion records from the same dataset. The results demonstrate that nonlinear site responses can be evaluated using horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios of surface recordings at a single station.