EVALUATION OF UNSATURATED SOIL RESPONSE UNDER SEISMIC LOADING

The influence of matric suction as a stress state variable of unsaturated soil on shear modulus and also nonlinearity of soil has been recognized in several researches. Therefore, it is clear that presentation of seismic response of unsaturated soil profile with consideration of the suction effect provides a more realistic response of the soil profile. The aim of this study was to evaluate and validate the impact of suction on ground response analysis by available two unsaturated dynamic models in the literature that can predict shear modulus at very small strain and generate G/G0-γ, D-γ curves with considering of suction. The paper presents a parametric study of linear, equivalent linear and nonlinear site response analysis of the imaginary soil profiles in terms of the amplification function and pseudo acceleration-displacement response spectra and obviously show major effects of suction on the mentioned parameters