Antiplane Scattering of SH Waves by a Trapezoidal Valley with a Circular-Arc Alluvium in an Elastic Half Space

Abstract

Both lithologic and topographic irregularities may trigger significant scattering phenomenon of seismic waves. In this study, a series solution is presented for the analysis of scattering of SH waves induced by a trapezoidal valley during earthquakes. An appropriate region matching technique is utilized to divide the physical region into four computational subregions. The wave motions of each subregion are obtained as an infinite series of wave functions with unknown coefficients in the respective cylindrical coordinates through wave function expansion method. The Graf's addition theorem is applied to transform the wave potentials of each subregion into the global coordinate. The mixed boundary conditions are solved by truncating the obtained infinite equations into a finite set. The effects of geometrical topographies and sedimentary properties on the amplification are analyzed and discussed in terms of steady-state and transient response analysis.