Representative Shear Wave Velocity of Geotechnical Layers by Synthesizing In-situ Seismic Test Data in Korea

Shear wave velocity is commonly invoked in explaining geophysical phenomena and in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In particular, the importance of shear wave velocity in geotechnical earthquake engineering has been widely recognized for seismic design and seismic performance evaluation. In the present study, various in-situ seismic tests were performed to evaluate geotechnical dynamic characteristics at 183 sites in Korea, and shear wave velocity profiles with depth were determined to be representative of the dynamic properties at the investi-gated sites. Subsurface soil and rock layers at the target sites were reclassified into five geotechnical layers: fill, alluvial soil, weathered soil, weathered rock, and bedrock, taking into account their general uses in geotechnical earthquake engineering practice. Average shear wave velocity profiles for the five geotechnical layers were obtained by synthesizing the shear wave velocity profiles from seismic tests in the field. Based on the profiles, a representative shear wave velocity value was determined for each layer, for use in engineering seismology and geo-technical earthquake engineering. Key words: shear wave velocity, geotechnical layers, in-situ seismic test, geotechnical dynamic properties, sit