简介：Buildingcodeshavewidelyconsideredtheshearwavevelocitytomakeareliablesubsoilseismicclassification,basedontheknowledgeofthemechanicalpropertiesofmaterialdepositsdowntobedrock.Thisapproachhaslimitationsbecausegeophysicaldataareoftenveryexpensivetoobtain.Recently,otheralternativeshavebeenproposedbasedonmeasurementsofbackgroundnoiseandestimationoftheH/Vamplificationcurve.However,theuseofthistechniqueneedsaregulatoryframeworkbeforeitcanbecomearealisticsiteclassificationprocedure.ThispaperproposesanewformulationforcharacterizingdesignsitesinaccordancewiththeAlgerianseismicbuildingcode(RPA99/ver.2003),throughtransferfunctions,byfollowingastochasticapproachcombinedtoastatisticalstudy.Foreachsoiltype,thedeterministiccalculationoftheaveragetransferfunctionisperformedoverawidesampleof1-Dsoilprofiles,wheretheaverageshearwave(S-W)velocity,Vs,insoillayersissimulatedusingrandomfieldtheory.Averagetransferfunctionsarealsousedtocalculateaveragesitefactorsandnormalizedaccelerationresponsespectratohighlighttheamplificationpotentialofeachsitetype,sincefrequencycontentofthetransferfunctionissignificantlysimilartothatoftheH/Vamplificationcurve.ComparisonisdonewiththeRPA99/ver.2003andEurocode8(EC8)designresponsespectra,respectively.Intheabsenceofgeophysicaldata,theproposedclassificationapproachtogetherwithmicro-tremormeasurescanbeusedtowardabettersoilclassification.