@article{DerrasBardCotton2017,
  author    = {Derras, Boumediene and Bard, Pierre-Yves and Cotton, Fabrice Pierre},
  title     = {V-S30, slope, H-800 and f(0): performance of various site-condition proxies in reducing ground-motion aleatory variability and predicting nonlinear site response},
  series = {Earth, planets and space},
  volume    = {69},
  journal   = {Earth, planets and space},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Heidelberg},
  issn      = {1880-5981},
  doi       = {10.1186/s40623-017-0718-z},
  pages     = {1623 -- 1629},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The aim of this paper is to investigate the ability of various site-condition proxies (SCPs) to reduce ground-motion aleatory variability and evaluate how SCPs capture nonlinearity site effects. The SCPs used here are time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m (V-S30), the topographical slope (slope), the fundamental resonance frequency (f(0)) and the depth beyond which V-s exceeds 800 m/s (H800). We considered first the performance of each SCP taken alone and then the combined performance of the 6 SCP pairs [V-S30-f(0)], [V-S30-H-800], [f(0)-slope], [H-800-slope], [V-S30-slope] and [f(0)-H-800]. This analysis is performed using a neural network approach including a random effect applied on a KiK-net subset for derivation of ground-motion prediction equations setting the relationship between various ground-motion parameters such as peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and pseudo-spectral acceleration PSA (T), and Mw, RJB, focal depth and SCPs. While the choice of SCP is found to have almost no impact on the median groundmotion prediction, it does impact the level of aleatory uncertainty. VS30 is found to perform the best of single proxies at short periods (T < 0.6 s), while f(0) and H-800 perform better at longer periods; considering SCP pairs leads to significant improvements, with particular emphasis on [V-S30-H-800] and [f(0)-slope] pairs. The results also indicate significant nonlinearity on the site terms for soft sites and that the most relevant loading parameter for characterising nonlinear site response is the "stiff" spectral ordinate at the considered period.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{DerrasBardCotton2017,
  author    = {Derras, Boum{\´e}di{\`e}ne and Bard, Pierre-Yves and Cotton, Fabrice Pierre},
  title     = {VS30, slope, H800 and f0},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {817},
  issn      = {1866-8372},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-42707},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427071},
  pages     = {23},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The aim of this paper is to investigate the ability of various site-condition proxies (SCPs) to reduce ground-motion aleatory variability and evaluate how SCPs capture nonlinearity site effects. The SCPs used here are time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m (VS30), the topographical slope (slope), the fundamental resonance frequency (f0) and the depth beyond which Vs exceeds 800 m/s (H800). We considered first the performance of each SCP taken alone and then the combined performance of the 6 SCP pairs [VS30-f0], [VS30-H800], [f0-slope], [H800-slope], [VS30-slope] and [f0-H800]. This analysis is performed using a neural network approach including a random effect applied on a KiK-net subset for derivation of ground-motion prediction equations setting the relationship between various ground-motion parameters such as peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and pseudo-spectral acceleration PSA (T), and Mw, RJB, focal depth and SCPs. While the choice of SCP is found to have almost no impact on the median groundmotion prediction, it does impact the level of aleatory uncertainty. VS30 is found to perform the best of single proxies at short periods (T < 0.6 s), while f0 and H800 perform better at longer periods; considering SCP pairs leads to significant improvements, with particular emphasis on [VS30-H800] and [f0-slope] pairs. The results also indicate significant nonlinearity on the site terms for soft sites and that the most relevant loading parameter for characterising nonlinear site response is the "stiff" spectral ordinate at the considered period.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ZhuPilzCotton2019,
  author    = {Zhu, Chuanbin and Pilz, Marco and Cotton, Fabrice Pierre},
  title     = {Which is a better proxy, site period or depth to bedrock, in modelling linear site response in addition to the average shear-wave velocity?},
  series = {Bulletin of earthquake engineering : official publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering},
  volume    = {18},
  journal   = {Bulletin of earthquake engineering : official publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Dordrecht},
  issn      = {1570-761X},
  doi       = {10.1007/s10518-019-00738-6},
  pages     = {797 -- 820},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {This study aims to identify the best-performing site characterization proxy alternative and complementary to the conventional 30 m average shear-wave velocity V-S30, as well as the optimal combination of proxies in characterizing linear site response. Investigated proxies include T-0 (site fundamental period obtained from earthquake horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios), V-Sz (measured average shear-wave velocities to depth z, z = 5, 10, 20 and 30 m), Z(0.8) and Z(1.0) (measured site depths to layers having shear-wave velocity 0.8 and 1.0 km/s, respectively), as well as Z(x-infer) (inferred site depths from a regional velocity model, x = 0.8 and 1.0, 1.5 and 2.5 km/s). To evaluate the performance of a site proxy or a combination, a total of 1840 surface-borehole recordings is selected from KiK-net database. Site amplifications are derived using surface-to-borehole response-, Fourier- and cross-spectral ratio techniques and then are compared across approaches. Next, the efficacies of 7 single-proxies and 11 proxy-pairs are quantified based on the site-to-site standard deviation of amplification residuals of observation about prediction using the proxy or the pair. Our results show that T-0 is the best-performing single-proxy among T-0, Z(0.8), Z(1.0) and V-Sz. Meanwhile, T-0 is also the best-performing proxy among T-0, Z(0.8), Z(1.0) and Z(x-infer) complementary to V-S30 in accounting for the residual amplification after V-S30-correction. Besides, T-0 alone can capture most of the site effects and should be utilized as the primary site indicator. Though (T-0, V-S30) is the best-performing proxy pair among (V-S30, T-0), (V-S30, Z(0.8)), (V-S30, Z(1.0)), (V-S30, Z(x-infer)) and (T-0, V-Sz), it is only slightly better than (T-0, V-S20). Considering both efficacy and engineering utility, the combination of T-0 (primary) and V-S20 (secondary) is recommended. Further study is needed to test the performances of various proxies on sites in deep sedimentary basins.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ZhuPilzCotton2020,
  author    = {Zhu, Chuanbin and Pilz, Marco and Cotton, Fabrice Pierre},
  title     = {Evaluation of a novel application of earthquake HVSR in site-specific amplification estimation},
  series = {Soil dynamics and earthquake engineering},
  volume    = {139},
  journal   = {Soil dynamics and earthquake engineering},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Oxford},
  issn      = {0267-7261},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.soildyn.2020.106301},
  pages     = {14},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Ground response analyses (GRA) model the vertical propagations of SH waves through flat-layered media (1DSH) and are widely carried out to evaluate local site effects in practice. Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique is a cost-effective approach to extract certain site-specific information, e.g., site fundamental frequency (f(0)), but HVSR values cannot be directly used to approximate the levels of S-wave amplifications. Motivated by the work of Kawase et al. (2019), we propose a procedure to correct earthquake HVSR amplitudes for direct amplification estimations. The empirical correction compensates HVSR by generic vertical amplification spectra categorized by the vertical fundamental frequency (f(0v)) via kappa-means clustering. In this investigation, we evaluate the effectiveness of the corrected HVSR in approximating observed linear amplifications in comparison with 1DSH modellings. We select a total of 90 KiK-net (Kiban Kyoshin network) surface-downhole sites which are found to have no velocity contrasts below their boreholes and thus of which surface-to-borehole spectral ratios (SBSRs) can be taken as their empirical transfer functions (ETFs). 1DSH-based theoretical transfer functions (TTFs) are computed in the linear domain considering uncertainties in Vs profiles through randomizations. Five goodness-of-fit metrics are adopted to gauge the closeness between observed (ETF) and predicted (i.e., TTF and corrected HVSR) amplifications in both amplitude and spectral shape over frequencies from f(0) to 25 Hz. We find that the empirical correction to HVSR is highly effective and achieves a "good match" in both spectral shape and amplitude at the majority of the 90 KiK-net sites, as opposed to less than one-third for the 1DSH modelling. In addition, the empirical correction does not require a velocity model, which GRAs require, and thus has great potentials in seismic hazard assessments.},
  language  = {en}
}