Abstract: Chebyshev spectral element model is applied to one-dimensional wave propagation analysis of horizontal layered soil. A time-domain analysis is developed with high-order numerical scheme for the simulation of seismic response of soil site. The bedrock and upper soil are discretized by spectral elements, and the wave motion equation is applied to the domain of each element. Simultaneously, transmitting artificial boundary condition is introduced in the bedrock to simulate the influence of bottom infinite district on the interior wave motion. The Chebyshev orthogonal polynomials are used for constructing the displacement mode of the high-order elements, then a spatial discretization procedure is accomplished and the motion equation of all the computation nodes is obtained. A stable time-domain integration scheme is derived using the central difference theory and the numerical formulae of artificial boundary. Two soil sites seismic response problems are solved to compare the results using traditional methods. The proposed method provides remarkably enhanced computation efficiency for site seismic response analysis with high accuracy on small quantity of computing nodes .

Key words: seismic response of soil site, time-domain analysis method, Chebyshev spectral element model, high-order numerical scheme, one-dimensional wave motion