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This paper aims to present the investigation of the linear and nonlinear seismic site response of a saturated inhomogeneous poroviscoelastic soil profile for different soil properties, such as pore-water saturation, non-cohesive fines content FC, permeability k, porosity n and coefficient of uniformity C_u.

The inhomogeneous soil profile is idealized as a multi-layered saturated poroviscoelastic medium and is characterized by the Biot’s theory, with a shear modulus varying continuously with depth according to the Wichtmann’s model. Seismic response analysis has been evaluated through a computational model, which is based on the exact stiffness matrix method formulated in the frequency domain assuming that the incoming seismic waves consist of inclined P-SV waves.

Unlike the horizontal seismic response, the results indicate that the vertical one is strongly affected by the pore water saturation. Moreover, in the case of fully saturated soil profile, the same vertical response spectra are found for the two cases of soil behavior, linear and nonlinear.

This research is a detailed study of the geotechnical soil properties effect on the bi-directional seismic response of saturated inhomogeneous poroviscoelastic soil profile, which has not been treated before; the results are presented in terms of the peak acceleration ratio, as well as the free-field response spectra and the spectral ratio (V/H).