Site and soil - structure interaction effects during earthquakes
Improving understanding of the effects of surface geology and local soil conditions on the response of ground and structures during strong earthquakes is the aim of a new EU-funded project. The EURO-SEISMOD project, supported by the EU's Environment and Climate research programme, will validate a number of ground and structural response models, using data obtained from Europe's only test site (Volvi) during a previous European research project, EURO-SEISTEST. Other objectives of the project include the establishment of seismological and geotechnical databases on the Internet, and conducting tests to predict site effects in European cities, including Thessaloniki, Grenoble, Nice, Benevento, Barcelona, Lisbon and Liège. The project participants aim to achieve these objectives through: - Establishing a surface and vertical strong motion array in the Volvi basin near Thessaloniki, an area known for its high seismicity (1978: Ms = 6.4); - Using weak and strong motion recordings of the earthquakes at the Volvi experimental site since 1994, to establish the database; - GPS measurements for the area to evaluate fault expansion speed at the site; - Drilling of deep boreholes, and all kinds of in-situ and laboratory soil testing; - Constructing a 1:3 scale model of a typical R/C building with masonry infill, which is fully instrumented. The EURO-SEISTEST database and the experimental site is open, under certain conditions, to the international scientific community. Japanese scientists are already working in EURO-SEISTEST in order to validate a specific new method for estimating site-effects.