Seismic barriers: theory and numerical simulations

The basic idea of a seismic barrier is to protect an area occupied by a building or a group of buildings from seismic waves. Depending on the nature of seismic waves that are the most probable in a specific region, different kinds of seismic barriers are suggested. For example, vertical barriers resembling a wall in a soil can protect from Rayleigh and bulk waves. The FEM simulation reveals that to be effective, such a barrier should be (i) composed of layers with contrast physical properties allowing “trapping” of the wave energy inside some of the layers, and (ii) depth of the barrier should be comparable or greater than the considered seismic wavelength.