Influence of water saturation on horizontal and vertical motion at a porous soil interface induced by incident SV wave

Abstract

Recent field observations have indicated that water saturation of soils may strongly affect the vertical ground motion. A study is therefore carried out to investigate the effect of saturation on horizontal and vertical motion at an interface of porous soils with potential contributions directed to site evaluation based on field observations of both the horizontal and vertical motion. The problem described in this paper corresponds to an SV wave incident at the interface between the overlying soil and the underlying rock formation. The soils are modeled as partially water-saturated porous material with a small amount of air inclusions, while the rock are approximately regarded as ordinary one-phase solid. Theoretical formulation is developed for the computation of amplitudes of horizontal and vertical interface motion, which are expressed as functions of the degree of saturation, the angle of incidence as well as the frequency. Numerical results are given for a typical sand to illustrate the influence of saturation on the interface motion in two directions and their ratios. The present study demonstrates that the effect of water saturation may be substantial on both the horizontal and vertical motion as well as on their ratios, implying the importance of such effects in the interpretation of field observations.