The Effect of Heterogeneity of Materials, Different Shapes and Adjacent Hills on the Seismic Response of the Hill

Topography and soil different layer have significant effect on seismic response of structures. Most studies have focused on the amplification caused by a single topography; for example, hill. This research, using finite difference method numerical analyses, comprehensively studies the effects of adjacent hills, heterogeneity in the materials of the hills, and also hills different geometry shapes. In this paper, the amplification of homogeneous and non-homogenous hills with semicircular, triangular and trapezoid geometry shapes are investigated. The obtained results show that the geometry shape of adjacent hill has a significant effect on the base hill’s amplification. Increasing the non-homogenous adjacent hill’s height increases the base hill’s amplification. The results demonstrate that increasing the height of the side hill up to 3 times the height of the studied base hill increases the base hill’s amplification up to 40%. The results indicate that geometry of adjacent hill affects the seismic response of the base hill that it should be considered in the design of structures located on the base hill.