ModelHVSR is an upgrade of AMP (presented in its development stage in Dubrovnik).

The
program:

1) Computes AMP(S), the theoretical S-wave amplification spectrum (response,

transfer function) of a layered, viscoelastic model for vertically incident S-waves. In
this case this is horizontal response.
2) Computes AMP(P), the theoretical P-wave amplification spectrum (response,
transfer function) of a layered, viscoelastic model for vertically incident P-waves. In
this case this is vertical response.
3) Computes theoretical HVSR as AMP(S)/AMP(P).
4) Compares any of above with the observed HVSR
5) Computes theoretical HVSR for surface waves
6) Averages any number of observed HVSRs. This can be done on smoothed HVSR
(Grilla output ASCII files), or with the use of Landweber filtering on unsmoothed
NS, EW, UD spectra from Grilla *.asc files.
7) Searches for the model whose theoretical HVSR response best matches the observed
HVSR (random perturbation of model parameters within preselected limits)
8) Draws confidence limits and 3-D graphs of the misfit function for inverted model
parameters.

To run the program, open Matlab (version 7, it should work also in V6, but with some
minor elements missing from the GUI), then change directory (‘cd’ command) to where all
the files are (e.g. “cd NATOproject\ModelHVSR”), and enter

modelHVSR <Enter>

at the >> prompt. The main window should appear, and you can start by loading a model
(‘1. Load model’ button).

Ad 1) – 4) The assumption of vertical incidence is critical here, but it is often reasonable,

especially if the surficial layers are quite slow. Observed HVSR was in the literature often
compared with theoretical S-waves response and resonance, which is not justifiable
(vertical component is assumed to be = 1, which is approximately true – in the frequency
range of interest – only for large Vp/Vs ratios). Here, P-wave amplification is computed in
the same way as S-wave amplification (which is justifiable, as no P-SV conversions occur
in the case of vertical incidence), and HVSR is then defined as their ratio (because in this
case P- and S-waves are responsible for vertical and horizontal displacements,
respectively).
NB: The *.model files from last version of AMP will not work anymore, as now they
include also P-wave velocities and Qp.

Ad 5) Not improved with respect to the previous version, Q-factors play no role.

Ad 6) Several observed HVSRs can be averaged to obtain representative HVSR for a site.
The averaged HVSR is stored in *.mat file, and can be consequently read into the program,
just as any original Grilla ASCII file. An option to use Landweber filtering (instead of
smoothing within Grilla) is also provided. Care must be taken that in this case no smoothing
is applied in Grilla. Parameters of filter are chosen on the main interface and in the setup
window (button ‘Setup’). If only one file is chosen, this function will just compute the
Landweber version of HVSR for this site, and you can save this in *.mat file for later use
with ModelHVSR. (I am still not sure about the physical justification for Landweber
filtering, as the results are sometimes rather sensitive to parameters)

Ad 7) The model-‘inversion’ part was completely rewritten, and is now much faster
(Fortran-compiled *.dll subroutine for computation of amplification spectra is now called
from within Matlab, with no need of temporal storage of results in files on disk). The
routine randomly perturbs model parameters as many times you wish, but only within the
preset limits. After the chosen number of tries, the best model is saved in the file, and you
can adopt it for further refinement (‘Accept model’ button). The best model is the one
whose theoretical HVSR most closely matches the observed one, i.e. whose misfit function
(MF) is the smallest. MF = {[(HVSRobs – HVSRth)**2]*HVSRobs**E}. For E > 0,
larger weights are given to data close to peaks of HVSRobs (observed HVSR). HVSRth is
the theoretical HVSR for current model. You choose E with ‘Setup’ button.

The limits are set in the main window as max(Dp, Pp) for each parameter. Dp is the
allowed absolute variation, Pp is the allowed percentage of variation. I.e. if, for Vs=300
m/s, Dp=20 m/s, Pp=10 %, Vs will be varied by  30 m/s, because 10% of 300 m/s = 30
m/s, which is larger than 20 m/s. Absolute limits for all parameters can be set with ‘Setup’
button.

As theory says that only seismic impedances and travel times through layers play a role in
defining AMP, both depths and velocities can not be resolved at the same time (i.e. there
are infinite number of real models sharing the same amplification spectra). The best
procedure is to keep depths constant and vary other parameters. You can increase the speed
of inversion by choosing more sparse frequency set, as well as only the limited bandwidth
of interest (F1, step, F2).

The ‘Setup’ button will open the Setup-window. There you set settings not available from
the main window. Most of them are self-explanatory.

– ‘Percentage of tries…’ defines whether the best solution found so far will be taken as the
new origin for computing limits imposed on model parameters. For instance, if initial Vs
= 300, and only 20% variation is allowed, program will only vary Vs between 240 and
360 m/s. However, if the best model found so far has Vs = 350 m/s, and if you choose so,
this will be taken as new origin, so velocity will be searched for in the interval 280-420.
This has advantage that convergence is faster, but accidental ‘fall’ into a local minimum
of MF can lead the solution far from the absolute minimum. If you choose 75%, then
25% of models will be generated around the original model, and 75% of them around the
best model so far.
– ‘Exponent in weight…’ is explained above.
– ‘Low-velocity…’ = 1 allows P-wave low-velocity layers only if they are in the same
time S-wave low-velocity layers. Setting 0 will allow independent low-velocity layering.
Please take care – the velocities and thicknesses are interdependent. Therefore, an
apparent low-velocity layer will become ‘normal’ if its thickness is increased (keeping
the travel-time constant)
– ‘”tau” parameter…’ chooses tau parameter in Landweber filtering as percentage of
2/[max(V)**2] (V is vertical spectrum). The value of 50-200 usually gives reasonable
results, but try to experiment with larger values if the resulting spectrum is too smooth or
too close to zero at some frequencies.

The chosen setup parameters are remembered, and next time program will start with the
last-saved setup.

When perturbations are over, the best model will be written below the graph in black (on
the left), whereas the starting model will be in blue (on the right). The HVSR of the best
model and the starting model will be displayed in the figure in black and blue, respectively;
the target, observed, HVSR is in thick red.

Ad 8) After the prescribed number of tries, you can inspect the stability of results (‘Conf.
limits’ button, hopefully all buttons on the conf. limits interface are self-explanatory).

Misc:
The ‘Edit’ checkbox allows you to edit individual graph elements, ‘Hold’ checkbox holds
the content of the graph, so the next one is overdrawn. ‘Cursor’ button lets you to read-off
desired coordinates. ‘Export…’ buttons exports the graph to the desired graphical format.

You can change the model ‘by hand’ within the main window by changing any number of
parameters, or directly in the model file (*.model). All changes are immediately recorded in
the file “ampspektar.mod”.
‘Velocity measured at…’ denotes reference frequency to which velocities in the model
correspond (there is weak dispersion of body-waves in viscoelastic media!).