Seismic response in modern cities

TL;DR

This paper models the seismic response of modern cities using a layered approach, revealing frequency-dependent energy dissipation and highlighting increased vulnerability of dense, tall urban areas to seismic waves.

Contribution

It introduces a homogeneous layered city model for explicit theoretical analysis of seismic response, emphasizing energy absorption and the impact of city morphology on seismic vulnerability.

Findings

Seismic energy absorption can exceed one-third in built components.

Response varies significantly with frequency and city density.

Transfer functions may not accurately reflect overall city response.

Abstract

The proposed homogeneous flat-faced layer-like model of a city (termed overlayer), covering what is generally considered to be a dangerous site (from the point of view of seismic hazard) lends itself to an explicit theoretical analysis of its response to a seismic body wave radiated by distant sources. This study is carried out for: ground response of the complete site/overlayer configuration which is compared to the response of the configuration in which the overlayer is absent, response at the top of the layer for various layer thicknesses, and determination, as a function of frequency, of the fraction of incident flux that is dissipated in the overlayer, the underlying layer and, by radiation damping, in the hard half space. It is shown that all of these entities are highly frequency-dependent and even large in certain frequency intervals, without any resonant (in the sense of mode excitation) phenomena coming into play. The results of this study also show that transfer functions do not necessarily reflect the global response in the built component of a city and that more-appropriate energy-related functions, termed spectral absorptance (in the blocks of the city or their layer-like surrogate at the characteristic frequency of the seismic pulse) and absorptance (integral over frequency of the spectral absorptance), can increase with increasing city density or increasing city height. In fact, it is shown that more than a third of the incident seismic energy can be sent into, and therefore cause serious damage to, the built component. On the basis of these findings, it appears that the probable evolution of the morphology and constitutive properties of cities with time will make the latter more vulnerable to damage and destruction when submitted to seismic waves.