A survey of geotechnical system identification techniques

Abstract

Identification and inverse problem techniques play an important role in the characterization and modeling of geotechnical systems. These techniques have been used in estimation of system parameters, model development and calibration, as well as simulation of earthquake ground motions. The recent availability of high quality seismic records of sites equipped with downhole accelerometer arrays led to a burgeoning of identification and inverse problem studies involving geotechnical systems. This paper presents a survey of system identification techniques and analyses of full-and small-scale soil systems, with an emphasis on geotechnical earthquake engineering problems.

Responses of Liquefiable Soils in Pile Group Foundations of Tall Buildings from Shaking Table Tests

“…The methods of data processing and analysis used in shaking table studies (Koga et al 1990) can be improved using system identification techniques with downhole arrays (Oskay et al 2011). In these latter analyses, the soil deposits are assumed to deform in accordance with a shear beam model during seismic shaking (see Fig.8.).…”

“…Soil liquefaction has been documented in soil deposits by measuring the time histories of the acceleration and the pore pressure in vertical downhole seismic arrays and analyzed using system identification techniques that identified the stress-strain responses of liquefiable soils (e.g., Abdel-Ghaffar et al 1979, Zeghal et al 1994, Zeghal et al 2009, Oskay et al 2011, Lozano-Galant et al 2013). However, a recent review of geotechnical system identification methods (Oskay et al 2011) indicates that system identification has not yet been applied to the responses of liquefiable soils around the pile foundations of tall buildings, which is an important problem in earthquake engineering practice that remains poorly documented by experimental data.…”

“…However, a recent review of geotechnical system identification methods (Oskay et al 2011) indicates that system identification has not yet been applied to the responses of liquefiable soils around the pile foundations of tall buildings, which is an important problem in earthquake engineering practice that remains poorly documented by experimental data.…”

An Ensemble Kalman Filter Approach for Estimating Site Specific Earthquake Response

“…However, the main hindering factor that faces practitioners and researcher is the ability to identify accurate soil parameters especially due to lack of extensive soil related data and expensive accurate experimental testing. Although some field methods are being used for evaluation of model parameters and evolution of prognosticative tools and design procedures, a high level of uncertainty and high expenses are involved [5]. As for the laboratory tests, many restrictions are applied due to the irritated samples and the complications in reproducing the site stratification and boundary conditions (Kramer 1996).…”

“…A broad range of simplified and advanced soil constitutive models have been employed in nonlinear site response analysis. The aim of the prior SI techniques is to copy the observed earthquake excitation without prior knowledge on the soil parameters [5].…”