Amplification of in-plane seismic ground motion by group cavities in layered half-space (I)

Amplification of in-plane seismic ground motion by underground group cavities in layered half-space is studied both in frequency domain and time domain by using indirect boundary element method (IBEM), and the effect of cavity interval and spectrum of incident waves on the amplification are studied by numerical examples. It is shown that there may be large interaction between cavities, and group cavities with certain intervals may have significant amplification to seismic ground motion. The amplification of PGA (peak ground acceleration) and its PRS (peak response spectrum) can be increased up to 45.2% and 84.4%, for an example site in Tianjin, under the excitation of Taft wave and El Centro wave; and group cavities may also affect the spectra of the seismic ground motion. It is suggested that the effect of underground group cavities on design seismic ground motion should be considered.