Seismic Site Classification and Liquefaction Hazard Assessment of Jaipur City, India

Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) is one of the latest geophysical methods used for determining the shear wave velocity of the soil. A series of MASW tests were carried out in this study using a multi channel seismograph with 24 numbers of 4.5 Hz vertical geophones. Collected data were analysed using Surface Plus software. One-dimensional shear wave velocity models were developed from the analyses of the collected data for the Jaipur city. The average shear wave velocity (VS30) for the top 30 m of soil deposit was estimated for the Jaipur city. Based on this VS30 value, the Jaipur city was finally divided into various sub-zones as per the NEHRP guidelines. From the study it has been observed that all the studied areas are falling either in site class C or D. In top 15 m depth, almost all studied area is having average shear wave velocity less than 360 m/s. The estimated shear wave velocity data were used in the assessment of liquefaction potential of soil at various locations in the city. From the liquefaction potential results it can be concluded that most of the city area is not susceptible to liquefaction.