Abstract: | This study describes the development of a simple, heuristic manual calculation procedure for estimating the site period‐shift factor and soil damping ratio, with appropriate considerations for the level of shaking, impedance contrast between soil and bedrock interface and the plasticity of the soil layers. Essentially, the analogy of a building shear‐frame has been used to represent the seismic response behaviour of a soil column. The proposed procedure has been verified by comparing the predictions with results obtained directly from non‐linear shear wave analyses of soil column models. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |