Abstract

Coastal cities in Beibu Gulf of China are creating new lands by reclaiming from coasts, and are located in a seismic zone. The reclaimed land consists of a thick layer of marine soft soil overlain by sand. Earthquake in a soft-soil field usually leads to catastrophe, depending on the consolidation of soil and the amplitude of earthquake. In this paper, a scale model with a typical soft-soil stratigraphic section is presented to study the seismic responses of a soft-soil field under different consolidation conditions. The scale model was sequentially applied with several seismic waves at different epicentral distances to test the horizontal acceleration at different depths. The test results show that consolidation state, the earthquake amplitude and the spectral characteristics can greatly affect the predominant period, the horizontal acceleration amplification factor, and the seismic design parameters. Therefore, the earthquake characteristic and the consolidation state of soil should be taken into consideration comprehensively to ensure the safety of surface buildings on the reclaimed land during the earthquake.