A Simple Approach for Estimating the Fundamental Mode Shape of Layered Soil Profiles

Abstract

The fundamental mode shape of layered soil profiles is a key site response parameter, it has been adopted into the Japanese seismic code to represent the shape of the soil displacement response along the vertical direction. In this study, a simple approach for estimating the fundamental mode shape of layered soil profiles is developed. The proposed approach can directly model the fundamental mode shape and can be conveniently implemented using arithmetic operations, thus making it suitable to be used by the engineers. The assessments of the proposed approach using a series of layered soil profiles demonstrate that it can produce results in close agreement with the actual results.