STRESS FIELDS NEAR EARTHQUAKE EPICENTERS

The closed form expressions for stress fields are derived. The analysis of stress fields reveals several phenomena, which may be essential for the design of seismic protection of underground structures, namely (i) infinite peaks in both pressure and second stress invariant at the arrival of Rayleigh wave at any points on the free surface; (ii) finite values of stress invariant fields at any of the undersurface points; and (iii) the presence of an infinite peak in the displacement magnitude