The effect of canyon topography on strong ground motion at Feitsui damsite: Quantitative results

Abstract The free‐field accelerograms along Feitsui Canyon are analysed and modelled by a numerical scheme to study the effect of canyon topography. Six strong‐motion accelerometers (SC1–SC6) were deployed along the Feitsui Canyon in 1991. The observations suggest that the amplitude of ground motion at the trough of the canyon is smaller than that on its slopes. The integral equation method is applied to a two‐dimensional model of Feitsui Canyon to study the effects of the canyon topography. We choose the ground motion of SC3 station at the trough of the canyon as the input motion to the model, which is then used to predict the ground motion at the other five stations. The simulated and observed seismograms agree well in displacement and velocity, although the simulated acceleration at high frequency is underestimated. The simple model can reproduce the observed accelerations at all frequencies below 4 Hz.