Seismic Hazard Assessment in Armenia

An evaluation of seismic hazard assessment in the territory of Armenia is presented in this work. The catastrophic M = 7.0 Spitak earthquake in 1988 revealed the drawbacks of the acting seismic zoning map. Two seismic hazard maps have been compiled in NSSP RA during 1991–1996. The deterministic approach was applied in the first one and the probabilistic in the second one. Both maps were compiled on the basis of the same database. Comparison between the maps shows good correlation. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Axisymmetric soil–structure interaction by global–local finite elements

A version of the global–local finite element method is presented for studying dynamic steady-state soil–structure interaction wherein the soil medium extends to infinity. Herein, only axisymmetric behaviour is considered. In this approach, conventional finite elements are used to model the structure and some portion of the surrounding soil medium considered to be homogeneous and isotropic. A complete set of outgoing waves in the form of spherical harmonics for the entire space is used to represent the behaviour in the half-space beyond the finite element mesh and these are termed the global functions. Full traction and displacement continuity is enforced at the finite element mesh interface with the outer region. On the free surface of the half-space in the outer field, traction-free surface conditions are enforced by demanding that a sequence of integrals of the weighted-average tractions must vanish. Numerical examples are presented for the response of different shaped foundations, resting on the free surface or at various submerged levels, due to a normal seismic plane compressional wave. Plots of differential scattering cross-sections show the angular distribution of the energy (its directional nature) of the scattered field.     

The New Seismic Zonation Map for the Territory of Armenia

In the present work a new, deterministic, seismic zonation map for the territory of Armenia is presented. It has been compiled on the basis of the newest seismological, geological and geophisical data. Creation of the map included: determination of a seismic hazard area for the territory of Armenia; compilation of a map of active faults; identification of active blocks; identification of seismic source zones; calculation of a seismic effect from the seismic source zones (SSZs). Seismic effect on the Earth's surface from the singled out SSZs is calculated in the form of an intensity of seismic influences expressed in units of MSK-64 scale, and horizontal soil accelerations expressed in fractions of gravity force acceleration (g). The map compiled will allow comparison between the deterministic model with a probabilistic seismic zonation model for the territory of Armenia (in preparation), in order to analyze the western and eastern standards of seismic hazard assessment on the basis of the same complete data base.     

Interaction of an axisymmetric body with obliquely incident seismic waves by global local finite elements

Asymmetric steady-state structure-media interaction due to obliquely incident body waves is investigated via a version of the global local finite element method. In the present version, a local region that houses an axisymmetric structure is modelled by conventional finite elements, while the behaviour in the remaining portion of the homogeneous semi-infinite medium is presented by the spherical harmonics that are the eigensolutions of the entire space problem. The solution scheme involves (1) full displacement and traction continuity along the boundary between the local and the exterior regions and (2) satisfaction of the traction-free requirement on the surface of the half-space beyond the discretized region by virtue of a sequence of integral constraints of the non-zero weighted surface tractions of the spherical harmonics. The numerical results presented are for a perfectly bonded rigid circular foundation resting on the surface of the half-space and subjected to obliquely incident body waves. Dependence of the displacement response of the footing upon incident angles and dimensionless wave numbers is thoroughly studied.