Effects of variability in ground motions and shear wave velocities on site response analyses for South Korea

Abstract

Korea peninsula has been known as a safe zone from earthquake disasters. However, there has been a growing interest in earthquake research after the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake and the 2018 Pohang earthquake struck South Korea. In the seismic design, the seismic wave propagation characteristics are evaluated by the site response analysis(SRA), so it is necessary to obtain reliable SRA results. In this aspect, this study aimed to investigate the effect of uncertainty in shear-wave velocity and ground motions on the SRA results. The shear-wave velocity profiles obtained from the southeastern part of South Korea and seven suites of ground motions are used for the uncertainty quantification and nonlinear SRAs were also performed.