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Damage to buried pipelines due to complex ground responses has been reported at residential development sites and valley plains with complex ground structures. Three-dimensional (3D) ground amplification analyses using 3D, nonlinear, finite-element methods may be effective in predicting such damage; however, it is often difficult to construct ground structures that are capable of reproducing observational characteristics. In this paper, we propose a 3D ground structure optimization method using a 3000[Formula: see text] forward finite-element dynamic analysis with approximately 0.27 million degrees of freedom, enabled by combining an automated 3D finite-element model-generation method and a fast 3D finite-element wave propagation analysis method. This optimization method is capable of estimating 3D ground structure models that can reproduce observational data characteristics. The effectiveness of the method is shown through an illustrative example.

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