A cooperative NRC/CEA research project on earthquake ground motion on soil sites: overview

This paper provides an overview of a multi-phase experiment being conducted jointly by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. The objective of the experiment is to collect a comprehensive set of data on the propagation of earthquake ground motions vertically through a shallow soil column (on the order of several tens of meters). The data will be used to validate several of the available engineering computer codes for modeling earthquake ground motion. The data set will also be used to develop an improved understanding of the earthquake source function and the potential for non-linear effects controlling the propagation through the shallow soil column