FULLY NONLINEAR SITE RESPONSE ANALYSIS

FACT: Soil response at larger strain levels (> 0.1%) is highly nonlinear, with
dynamic properties changing significantly over time. More importantly,
at strain levels approaching and exceeding the soil's failure strain (often
1-10%), soil response is affected significantly by its shear strength.

HENCE: Use time domain analysis with fully nonlinear soil properties

ADVANTAGES:
1. Dynamic soil properties change continually during the response
analysis depending on the current strain level, effective stress, and
stress history.
2. Captures influence of pore pressure generation
3. Can estimate displacements reliably.
4. Does not allow the calculated maximum shear stress to exceed
the dynamic shear strength of the soil.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. Most fully nonlinear models cannot "match" both your estimated
strain-dependent shear modulus reduction and material damping
curves at the same time.
2. Typically, overestimate damping at large strain levels.
3. Requires introduction of "viscous damping" to prevent excessive
high frequency oscillations at low strain levels when the hysteretic
damping is very low.
4. Requires more soil parameters.
5. Utilizes simple lumped mass or complex finite element scheme.
6. Results are more sensitive to input and less validated than SHAKE
results

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Always have a "feel" for what the results should look like before
running a fully nonlinear response analyses, e.g.:
• Use simplified site response methods first
• Then perform SHAKE analyses to get estimate of PGA and
reasonable acceleration response spectrum.
2. Check the predicted shape of shear modulus reduction and
damping curves based on model parameters.
3. Watch for excessive high frequency response or over-damping of
response.