Evaluation of Amplification Hazard for

Chennai City

Site
Faul
t Path Surficial
Sourc Layers
e

Prof. A. Boominathan
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai – 600 036

FIRST DISASTER MANAGEMENT CONGRESS, NEW DELHI

Nov. 29-30, 2006

INTRODUCTION

It is only in recent decades that the occurrence of some earthquakes
with magnitude of 5 and a couple of earthquakes with 6 has caused
concern which led to the study of peninsular seismicity in greater
detail

Bhuj earthquake in 2001 led to the modification of the seismic
zonation of India

Seismic zonal classification has categorized the Chennai region in
Zone III with a Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of 0.16g

The zonal values of PGA cannot assure with certainty what ground
acceleration will be experienced by the structures located in the
respective zones.

In such poorly studied and/or low-seismicity areas, strong motion
data set is not available.

Ground acceleration, coupled with site-specific effects, which
actually buffet buildings due to the impact of an earthquake

An attempt is made to study the seismic response of selected areas of
Chennai city in terms of PGA

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MAP PREPARATION

GIS is used for the preparation
of digitized map

Toposheets of Chennai city of
scale 1:50,000, obtained from
Survey of India were digitized
onscreen and used as base map

Digitization include several
layers such as the
administrative boundary,
contours, highways, railroads,
water bodies and land marks

Collection of borehole data

Digitization and the graphical
representation of the borehole
data is done in GIS platform Location of
boreholes

ARCINFO version of ARCGIS
is used

OBJECTIVES

Implementation of a multidisciplinary methodology

Integrating --- seismicity
--- seismotectonics of the region
--- local site amplification, etc.

To create the complete 3-D subsurface profile

To establish design bedrock motions - probabilistic seismic hazard
analysis

Evaluation of dynamic properties of soil and rock – geophysical field
tests and laboratory tests

To carry out nonlinear ground response analyses

To construct the site-specific design spectra

To develop the shake map for the selected locations of Chennai city

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 PGA MAP

INTENSITY MAP (Jan. 12, 2005; Desert hot springs, CA)

M = 4.3

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 GEOLOGY OF CHENNAI (12.75° − 13.25° N and 80.0° − 80.5° E)

South and SW
Igneous/metamorphic rocks

East
Fluvio-Marine sediments containing
clay-silt sands; Charnockite rocks

North, West and SW

Adyar, Cooum and Kortaliyar river
alluvium, sedimentary rocks

South
Gondwana rocks, Tertiary rocks
(sandstones, shales and boulder
beds)

The thickness of alluvium ranges

from a few meters in the south to 52
to 80 m in the north

Geographical areal extent is about 1200 sq. km with 7.0 million population

SEISMICITY OF CHENNAI

Recent tremors occurred in Chennai

2001 Bhuj earthquake (Mw 7.6)

2001 Pondicherry earthquake (Mw 5.6)

2004 Sumatra earthquake (Mw 9.1)

Earthquake catalogues of NEIC, USA shows

65 earthquakes within 300 km from Chennai since 1800 A.D. onwards

450 eathquakes in Peninsular India

Recorded earthquakes of magnitude 6 produced rumbling noise and

shallow focal depths

4
 Summary of Earthquake Events
(Events with M > 2 considered)

Magnitude Global data GBA Data

Sr. No.
range No. of events
1 2.0 – 2.5
2 2.5 – 3.0
3 3.0 – 3.5
4 3.5 – 4.0
5 4.0 – 4.5
6 4.5 – 5.0
7 5.0 – 5.5
8 5.5 – 6.0
9 6.0 – 6.5
No. of events
1 109
3 110
5 103
14 54
19 35
2 4
6 2
2 0
1 0

Lineament map of
Tamil Nadu

Seismicity of Peninsular India

(Gangrade and Arora, 2000)

5
 Seismotectonic map of
Chennai city

Faults and lineaments within

100 km from Chennai were
found

In the zone of influence, 4
Chennai
faults, 2 major lineaments
and several other minor
Palar fault
lineaments were observed

Palar fault, located at a
distance of 68 km from the
Chennai city was identified
as a future seismic source for
the city.

Seismotectonic map combines the fault map with geological features of the area under
consideration and shows the main tectonic features in relation to the seismicity

Establishment of bedrock motion using DSHA

Seismological studies carried out for Kalpakkam region have been
utilized to arrive the design magnitude

Considering Palar fault as the causative fault, design bed rock
motions are established with a moment magnitude of 6.5

PGA is calculated using the relation proposed for Peninsular India
by Iyengar and Raghukanth (2004) :
ln (PGA/g) = C1 + C2 (M - 6) + C3 (M - 6)2 – ln (R) - C4 R + ln ε
where C1 = 1.6858; C2 = 0.9241; C3 = - 0.0760; C4 = 0.0057 and
σ (ln ε) = 0.4648

Bed rock motion with a PGA of 0.134g was obtained

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 GROUND RESPONSE ANALYSIS (GRA)

Surface acceleration

Site
Fault
Path Surficial Layers
Source

Bed rock acceleration

GROUND RESPONSE ANALYSIS

Ground response analysis is performed to determine the extent to

which shallow sediments contribute to anomalous response

One dimensional ground response analysis was carried out by the
equivalent linear approach using the wave propagation program
SHAKE 91

The main program input parameters are

Acceleration time history

Strain dependent shear modulus and damping of soil and rock
strata

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 INPUT MOTION

The bedrock motion is expressed in terms of peak ground
accelerations including the bracketed duration

Time history of the bed rock motion of the Loma Prieta earthquake
was modified with respect to the estimated ground motion
parameters of the study area and the same was used as an input
motion
Bed Rock Motion
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
Acceleration, g

0.00
-0.02 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40

-0.04
-0.06
-0.08
-0.10
-0.12
Time, sec

Bed rock motion with PGA 0.134g

SHEAR WAVE VELOCITY

SPT N-values obtained in the field were corrected for various factors:
overburden pressure, hammer energy, bore hole diameter, rod length and
fines content

Shear wave velocity, Vs was estimated from the corrected SPT-N values
using the following equations (JRA, 1980):
Vs ( m/sec ) = 100 N ( For C lay )
1
3

V s ( m /sec ) = 8 0 N 3 ( F o r S an d )
1

Standard modulus reduction and damping curves proposed by Sun et al.

(1988) for clay and Seed and Idriss (1970, 1990) for sand were used in the
site-specific ground response analysis

Regions considered for study

Region 1 Guindy
Region 2 Santhome
Region 3 Tiruvottiyur
Region 4 Velachery

Region 1 & 4 are hard rock areas and regions 2 & 3 are soil sites

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 Typical soil profile at Adyar region

Depth Field description N-Value Vs, m/sec

0.8 m Dark brown silty sand with stones 14 228
2.8 m Light brown clayey sandy silt 10 192
4.5 m Dark brownish grey silty clay 12 242
5.4 m Grayish silty clay 14 250
9.4 m Grayish soft to medium stiff silty clay 6 179
15.0 m Grayish clayey silt with very fine sand and clay lumps 1 103
15.8 m Grayish medium stiff clay 11 185
22.0 m Grayish soft to medium stiff clay 8 165
23.5 m Greenish and brownish clayey sandy silt with stones 100 355
25.0 m Brownish clayey silt with very fine sand and weathered stones 100 900

ACCELERATION TIME HISTORY AT

GROUND SURFACE
Time History - Region 1 Time History - Region 3
0.15
0.30
0.10
0.20
0.05
Acceleration, g

Acceleration, g

0.10
0.00
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
0.00
-0.05
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
-0.10 -0.10

-0.15 -0.20

-0.20 -0.30
Time, sec Time, sec

Time History - Region 2 Time History - Region 4

0.20
0.30
0.15

0.20 0.10
Acceleration, g
Acceleration, g

0.05
0.10
0.00
0.00 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
-0.05
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40
-0.10 -0.10
-0.15
-0.20
-0.20
-0.30 -0.25
Time, sec Time, sec

Regions 3 & 4 show higher surface acceleration when compared to the hard rock areas

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 AMPLITUDE RATIO VERSUS FREQUENCY RESPONSE

3.5

Amplification ratio is the ratio of
Fourier amplitude at the surface to
3
the Fourier amplitude at bed rock
Amplification Ratio

2.5 ADYAR
level
2

1.5

1
Adyar – Soil site

0.5
Velachery – Hard rock site
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency, Hz Amplification at the soil sites occurs
at low frequency (less than 0.75 Hz)
7

6
VELACHERY
Amplification of hard rock regions
Amplification Ratio

5
occur at higher frequencies (greater
4
than 7.5 Hz) with multiple peaks
3

0
0 5 10 15 20 25

Frequency, Hz

RESULTS OF GRA
4 5
Region 1 Region 3
4.5
4
3
Amplitude Ratio

3.5
Amplitude

3
2 2.5
2
1.5
1 1
0.5
0
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
0 5 10 15 20 25
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

5 Region 2 7 Region 4
4.5
6
4
Amplitude Ratio

3.5 5
Amplitude

3 4
2.5
3
2
1.5 2
1
1
0.5
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

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RESPONSE SPECTRA
5 % damping

At soil site, high spectral amplitude at wide range of periods

Velachery region (Rocky site) – high spectral amplitude only at low periods

SUMMARY

Chennai city is highly populated with structures of all kinds which
need special attention in view of the revised zonation for their
strengthening and seismic retrofit

This study is mainly a comprehensive preliminary study to provide
important inputs needed in seismic hazard zonation.

It is intended to compile all the available data relevant to local
geology, subsurface layering and geotechnical characteristics and
implement as coverages in the GIS thus generating a complete 3D
subsurface profile

Development of seismic hazard maps requires accurate estimation of
site amplification during the expected earthquake

Development of seismic hazard maps for the selected regions of the
Chennai city is under way

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was funded by The Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi
as part of the sponsored project entitled “Seismic Site Characterization and Site
Amplification Studies for Chennai City” (DST No:23(497)/SU/2004 Dt.
09/08/2005). The authors extend their thanks to M/s. Geotechnical Solutions,
Chennai for providing the borehole data of the regions reported in the paper.

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