In Situ and Laboratory Dynamic Characterization of Catania Clay

The city of Catania, located on the eastern zone of Sicily, is prone to high seismic risk. The field and laboratory experimental data allowed the definition of the geotechnical model of subsoil. In this paper a review of the principal results of in situ and laboratory investigations is described and compared in order to provide a representative model of ground condition of different zones in the city for realistic seismic scenarios response analysis. The investigation program was performed in seven different test sites of Catania to evaluate the variation of shear modulus and damping ratio with strain level and depth. Moreover for sandy soil normalised laws are proposed to consider shear modulus decay and damping ratio increase with strain level.