Quantification of Effects of Ridge and Valley Topography on the Rayleigh Wave Characteristics

Abstract

The effects of ridge and valley on the characteristics of Rayleigh waves are presented in this paper. The research work carried out has been stimulated by the day by day increase of long-span structures in the hilly areas which are largely affected by the spatial variability in ground motion caused by the high-frequency Rayleigh waves. The Rayleigh wave responses of the considered triangular and elliptical ridge and valley models were computed using a fourth-order accurate staggered-grid viscoelastic P-SV wave finite-difference (FD) program. The simulated results revealed very large amplification of the horizontal component and de-amplification of the vertical component of Rayleigh wave at the top of a triangular ridge and de-amplification of both the components at the base of the triangular valley. The observed amplification of both the components of Rayleigh wave in front of elliptical valley was larger than triangular valley models. A splitting of the Rayleigh wave wavelet was inferred after interaction with ridge and valley. It is concluded that the large-scale topography acts as a natural insulator for the surface waves and the insulating capacity of the valley is more than that of a ridge. This insulation phenomenon is arising due to the reflection, diffraction and splitting of the surface wave while moving across the topography. It is concluded that insulating potential of the topography for the Rayleigh waves largely depends on their shape and shape-ratio.