The influence of surface Rayleigh waves (SRWs) on the seismic behavior of three archetype nonconforming reinforced concrete (RC) buildings including weak first story with four, six, and eight stories when subjected to earthquake ground motions (EQGMs) recorded during the strong September 19, 2017 Mw7.1 earthquake in Mexico City, is discussed in this paper. For this purpose, ground acceleration time histories corresponding to the retrograde and prograde components of SRWs were extracted from EQGMs collected at the accelerographic stations placed at the transition and soft soil sites. It was found that the SWRs contribute to about 50% of the median maximum IDR demand (IDRmax) triggered by the as-recorded earthquake ground motions at the ground level of the four- and six-story building models, while their contribution is about 30% of IDRmax for the eight-story building model. It should be noted that that SRWs induce median IDRmax demands to the four-story building model larger than about 11% and 49% than those to the six- and eight-story models, respectively, for soft soil sites. Moreover, the prograde component can trigger IDRmax demands in the four-story building model larger than 73% and 45% than those for the six- and eight-story models, respectively, for the transition sites. Particularly, it was shown that SRWs induce median IDRmax demands in excess of 0.35% at the first level of the archetype building models, which is associated to the light cracking damage state of nonductile RC columns, and even in excess of IDRmax of 0.71% associated to the severe cracking damage state when the record-to-record variability is considered in the IDRmax demand (i.e. the 84th percentile of IDRmax). Although the earthquake ground motion component of the surface Rayleigh waves was negligible in the median IDRmax, this study showed that the effect of the directionality of IDRmax is important for the CH84 station, where significant polarity of spectral ordinates was identified in previous studies.

Rayleigh waves are crucial in earthquake engineering due to their significant contribution to structural damage. This study aims to accurately synthesize Rayleigh wave fields in both uniform elastic half-spaces and horizontally layered elastic half-spaces. To achieve this, we developed a self-programmed FORTRAN program utilizing the thin layer stiffness matrix method. The accuracy of the synthesized wave fields was validated through numerical examples, demonstrating the program's reliability for both homogeneous and layered half-space scenarios. A comprehensive analysis of Rayleigh wave propagation characteristics was conducted, including elliptical particle motion, depth-dependent decay, and energy concentration near the surface. The computational efficiency of the self-programmed FORTRAN program was also verified. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of Rayleigh wave behavior and lays the foundation for further studies on soil-structure interaction under Rayleigh wave excitation, ultimately improving the safety and resilience of structures in seismic-prone regions.

Rayleigh waves are vertically elliptical surface waves traveling along the ground surface, which have been demonstrated to pose potential damage to buildings. However, traditional seismic barriers have limitations of high-frequency narrow bandgap or larger volume, which have constraints on the application in practical infrastructures. Thus, a new type seismic metamaterial needs to be further investigated to generate wide low-frequency bandgaps. Firstly, a resonator with a three-vibrator is proposed to effectively attenuate the Rayleigh waves. The attenuation characteristics of the resonator are investigated through theoretical and finite element methods, respectively. The theoretical formulas of the three-vibrator resonator are established based on the local resonance and mass-spring theories, which can generate wide low-frequency bandgaps. Subsequently, the frequency bandgaps of the resonator are calculated by the finite element software COMSOL5.6 based on the theoretical model and Floquet-Bloch theory with a wide ultra-low-frequency bandgap in 4.68-22.01 Hz. Finally, the transmission spectrum and time history analysis are used to analyze the influences of soil and material damping on the attenuation effect of resonators. The results indicate that the resonator can generate wide low-frequency bandgaps from 4.68 Hz to 22.01 Hz and the 10-cycle resonators could effectively attenuate Raleigh waves. Furthermore, the soil damping can effectively attenuate seismic waves in a band from 1.96 Hz to 20 Hz, whereas the material of the resonator has little effect on the propagation of the seismic waves. These results show that this resonator can be used to mitigate Rayleigh waves and provide a reference for the design of surface waves barrier structures.