---

Ground differential movements due to faulting have been observed to cause damage to engineered structures

and facilities. Although surface fault rupture is not a new problem, there are only a few building codes in the world

containing some type of provisions for reducing the risks. Fault setbacks or avoidance of construction in the proximity

to seismically active faults, are usually supposed as the first priority. In this paper, based on some 1-g physical

modelling tests, clear perspectives of surface fault rupture propagation and its interaction with shallow rigid

foundations are presented. It is observed that the surface fault rupture could be diverted by massive structures seated

on thick soil deposits. Where possible the fault has been deviated by the presence of the rigid foundation, which

remained undisturbed on the footwall. It is shown that the setback provision does not give generally enough assurance

that future faulting would not threaten the existing structures.

---

In this paper, an advanced formulation of a time-domain two-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) is presented and

applied to calculate the response of a buried, unlined, and infinitely long cylindrical cavity with a circular cross-section subjected

to SV and P waves. The applicability and efficiency of the algorithm are verified with frequency-domain BEM examples of the

effect of cylindrical cavities on the site response analysis. The analysis results show that acceptable agreements exist between

results of this research and presented examples. For a shallow cavity, the numerical results demonstrate that vertically incident

SV wave reduces the horizontal components of the motion on the ground surface above the cavity, while it significantly increases

the vertical component for a dimensionless frequency (&eta) of 0.5 and h/a=1.5. The maximum values of normalized displacements

in vertical component of P waves are larger than horizontal component of SV waves for &eta=1.0. For a deeply embedded cavity,

the effect of the cavity on the surface ground motion is negligible for incident SV wave, but it increases the vertical component of

the displacement for incident P wave. Additionally, far and near distances from the center of the cavity show different amplitude

patterns of response due to the cavity effect. Increasing the distance from the center of the cavity, the amplitude of displacement

and the effect of the cavity attenuates significantly.

---

During past earthquakes, many instances of building damage as a result of earthquake surface fault rupture have been observed.

The results of investigating a potential mitigation scheme are presented in this paper. Such plan provides a wall in the soil with

the aim of surface displacement localization in the narrow pre-determined location. This may reduce the risk of the future rupture

downstream the wall. To evaluate the efficiency of the method, this paper (i) provides validation through successful class “A”

predictions of 1g model tests for fault deviation by weak wall and (ii) conducts sensitivity analyses on fault position, fault offset

and wall shear strength. It is shown that wall can be designed to deviate rupture path even downstream of the wall can be

protected.

---

In this paper, an advanced formulation of time-domain, two-dimensional Boundary Element Method (BEM) with material damping is presented. Full space two-dimensional visco-elastodynamic time-convoluted kernels are proposed in order to incorporate proportional damping. This approach is applied to carry out site response analysis of viscoelastic topographic structures subjected to SV and P incident waves. Seismic responses of horizontally layered site, semi-circular canyons, slope topography and ridge sections subjected to these incident waves are analyzed in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the kernels and the applicability of the presented viscoelastic boundary element algorithm. The results show an excellent agreement with recent published results obtained in frequency domain. Also, the effects of different material damping ratios on site response are investigated.

---

This paper presents time domain fundamental solutions for the extended Biot's dynamic formulations of two-dimensional (2D) unsaturated poroelasticity. Unsaturated porous media is considered as a porous media in which the voids are saturated with two immiscible fluids, i.e. liquid and gas. At first, the corresponding explicit Laplace transform domain fundamental solution is obtained in terms of skeleton displacements, as well as liquid and gas pressures. Subsequently, the closed-form time domain fundamental solutions are derived by analytical inversion of the Laplace transform domain solutions. Finally, a set of numerical results are presented which verifies the accuracy of the analytically inversed transient fundamental solution and demonstrates some salient features of the elastic waves in unsaturated media..

---

In this paper, normalized displacement amplitude of the ground surface was presented in the presence of the semi-sine shaped valley above the truncated circular cavity embedded in a homogenous isotopic linear elastic half-plane, subjected to obliquely propagating incident SH waves as Ricker wavelet type. The proposed direct time-domain half-plane boundary element formulation was used and extended to analyze the combined multi-boundary topographic problems. While using it, only boundary of the valley and the surrounding cavity should be discretized. The effect of four geometric parameters including shape ratio of the valley, depth ratio, horizontal location ratio and truncation thickness of the cavity and incident wave angle was investigated on the responses at a single dimensionless frequency. The studies showed that surface behavior was completely different due to complex topographic features, compared with the presence of either valley or cavity alone. In addition, the cavity existence below the surface could play a seismic isolation role in the case of vertical incident waves and vice versa for oblique waves.

---

In this paper, an advanced formulation of the spectral finite element method (SFEM) is presented and applied in order to carry out site response analysis of 2D topographic structures subjected to vertically propagating incident in-plane waves in time-domain. The accuracy, efficiency and applicability of the formulation are demonstrated by solving some wave scattering examples. A numerical parametric study has been carried out to study the seismic response of rectangular alluvial valleys subjected to vertically propagating incident SV waves. It is shown that the amplification pattern of the valley and its frequency characteristics depend strongly on its shape ratio. The natural frequency of the rectangular alluvial valley decreases as the shape ratio of the valley decreases. The maximum amplification ratio along the ground surface occurs at the center of the valley. A simple formula has been proposed for making initial estimation of the natural period of the valley in site effect microzonation studies.

---

A study has been conducted on the bearing capacity of strip footings over sandy layered soils using the stress characteristic lines method. Traditional bearing capacity theories for specifying the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow foundations are based on the idea that the bearing layer is homogenous and infinite. However layered soils are mainly happening in practice. The stress characteristic lines method is a powerful numerical tool in order to solve stability problems in geotechnical engineering. In the present paper, an appropriate algorithm is derived for estimating the static bearing capacity of strip footing located on two layered soils using the stress characteristic lines method. Some numerical and experimental examples are presented in order to validate the proposed algorithm. Some graphs and equation are presented for initial estimating the effective depth of strip footings located on two layered soils.