Regional characterization of vs30 with hybrid geotechnical and geological data

Abstract

Regional characterization of soil properties requires not only geostatistical models considering the spatial variability of soil properties but also methods that account for various sources of heterogeneous information. This paper presents a multi-conditional random field approach to characterize the regional characteristics of the average shear-wave velocity in the top 30 meters of subsoil (vs30) based on hybrid geotechnical and geological data. The workflow for integrating multiple sources of soil properties information in a random field model for regional vs30 mapping is developed. A detailed two-dimensional (2D) synthetic digital soil field is generated to assess and verify this workflow. With the generated synthetic field, parametric studies on the investigation plans, the value of Markov Bayes coefficient B, element size, and a predefined grid of secondary data are performed. Practice on whether to incorporate secondary data for vs30 mapping and the determination of coefficient B are provided.

Keywords

• Shear wave velocity
• Random field model
• Uncertainty
• Vs30 mapping