Ground Response of Seasonal Frozen Site under Moderate Intensity Earthquake

The seasonal permafrost is widely distributed in China. Seismic Design Code (GB50011-2010) assumes that the soil temperature is above 0°C, which lacks the analysis of seasonally frozen soil. This article considered various sources of shear wave velocity variability and the frozen depth variability and calculated the ground response spectrums of the sites with seasonal frozen soil. The results shows that when Class1 and Class2 venues with thinner overlying soil and higher shear wave velocities their peaks of response spectrum with frozen soil will higher than that without permafrost. In the design the spectrums with frozen soil need to be calculated independently. In Class 3 and Class4 venues the response spectrums are essentially coincident, so the design only need calculate the spectrums under normal condition.