Assessment of soil-structure resonance in southern Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

Because of the site response effects can increase earthquakes damage, the assessment of soil–structure interaction is an important parameter to reduce seismic risk at a specified location. Southern Riyadh residential area is one of the densely populated districts of Riyadh city, so protection of these structures with human who lives in these buildings is of utmost importance. This is achieved through assessment of soil-structure resonance in this area. Microtremor measurements have been conducted at ten free-field sites and inside four buildings. The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) technique has been applied in order to assess the fundamental frequencies of the sediments, beside the longitudinal and transverse fundamental frequencies of each building based on the amplitude spectra and the floor spectral ratio (FSR) methods. In case of the building frequency is close to a nearby free-field fundamental frequency, a potential soil-structure resonance is present. The results clarified that the surveyed buildings have low danger level of soil-structure resonance.