A FORTRAN Program for Calculating Nonlinear Seismic Ground Response

Introduction

The program described here was designed for calculating the nonlinear seismic response of a system of horizontal soil layers underlain by a semi-infinite elastic medium representing bedrock. Excitation is a vertically incident shear wave in the underlying medium. The nonlinear hysteretic behavior of the soil is represented by a model consisting of simple linear springs and Coulomb friction elements arranged as shown. A boundary condition is used which takes account of finite rigidity in the elastic substratum. The computations are performed by an explicit finite-difference scheme that proceeds step by step in space and time. A brief program description is provided here with instructions for preparing the input and a source listing. A more detailed discussion of the method is presented elsewhere as is the description of a different program employing implicit integration.

First posted October 11, 2011