Application of a Monte‐Carlo simulation approach for the probabilistic assessment of seismic hazard for geographically distributed portfolio

The conventional integral approach is very well established in probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA). However, Monte‐Carlo (MC) simulations can become an efficient and flexible alternative against conventional PSHA when more complicated factors (e.g. spatial correlation of ground shaking) are involved. This study aims at showing the implementation of MC simulation techniques for computing the annual exceedance rates of dynamic ground‐motion intensity measures (GMIMs) (e.g. peak ground acceleration and spectral acceleration). We use multi‐scale random field technique to incorporate spatial correlation and near‐fault directivity while generating MC simulations to assess the probabilistic seismic hazard of dynamic GMIMs. Our approach is capable of producing conditional hazard curves as well. We show various examples to illustrate the potential use of the proposed procedures in the hazard and risk assessment of geographically distributed structural systems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于特征分类排序的典型海底地震动记录研究

面向海域工程抗震设计及评估对海底地震动的需求,基于日本相模湾海域K-NET的ETMC海底强震动记录,根据震级、震中距选取面向工程输入的949组地震动记录数据库。在考虑震源类型差异的基础上,对地震动峰值、持时、频谱等参数进行分析,通过反应谱、Arias烈度等指标描述典型海底地震动特征。根据峰值加速度、显著持时等强度指标对海底地震动记录进行排序,给出基于不同地震动特征分类下的典型地震动记录。推荐的海底地震动可为考虑不同结构需求参数的典型海域工程结构时程分析提供输入地震动。     

基于条件均值反应谱的特大地震强震记录的选取及调整方法

在PEER地震动数据库(PGMD)的基础上, 结合近几年国内外特大地震的地面运动记录, 建立了地面运动数据库, 同时根据日本M_W9.0特大地震获得的141组记录进行统计回归建立加速度反应谱衰减关系, 并采用条件均值反应谱法, 即设定地震与结构概率需求结合的方法选择地面运动. 选波实例表明, 当设定地震为特大地震时, 基于条件均值反应谱法选取地面运动记录时, 扩展数据库中大震记录并建立符合大震记录加速度反应谱的衰减关系是十分必要与迫切的. 该思路为进一步研究结构动态时程分析中地面运动记录选取问题及所选记录提供了依据.      

Engineering design earthquakes from multimodal hazard disaggregation

To define reference structural actions, engineers practicing earthquake resistant design are required by codes to account for ground motion likely to threaten the site of interest and also for pertinent seismic source features. In most of the cases, while the former issue is addressed assigning a mandatory design response spectrum, the latter is left unsolved. However, in the case that the design spectrum is derived from probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, disaggregation may be helpful, allowing to identify the earthquakes having the largest contribution to the hazard for the spectral ordinates of interest. Such information may also be useful to engineers in better defining the design scenario for the structure, e.g., in record selection for nonlinear seismic structural analysis. On the other hand, disaggregation results change with the spectral ordinate and return period, and more than a single event may dominate the hazard, especially if multiple sources affect the hazard at the site. This work discusses identification of engineering design earthquakes referring, as an example, to the Italian case. The considered hazard refers to the exceedance of peak ground acceleration and 1s spectral acceleration with four return periods between 50 and 2475 year. It is discussed how, for most of the Italian sites, more than a design earthquake exists, because of the modeling of seismic sources. Furthermore, it is explained how and why these change with the limit state and the dynamic properties of the structure. Finally, it is illustrated how these concepts may be easily included in engineering practice complementing design hazard maps and effectively enhancing definition of design seismic actions with relatively small effort.     

Seismic hazard disaggregation in performance‐based earthquake engineering: occurrence or exceedance?

Seismic hazard disaggregation is commonly used as an aid in ground‐motion selection for the seismic response analysis of structures. This short communication investigates two different approaches to disaggregation related to the exceedance and occurrence of a particular intensity. The impact the different approaches might have on a subsequent structural analysis at a given intensity is explored through the calculation of conditional spectra. It is found that the exceedance approach results in conditional spectra that will be conservative when used as targets for ground‐motion selection. It is however argued that the use of the occurrence disaggregation is more consistent with the objectives of seismic response analyses in the context of performance‐based earthquake engineering. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic reliability assessment of a steel moment-resisting frame with two different ductility levels using a cloud analysis approach

A cloud method for generating percentile engineering demand parameter versus intensity measure(EDP-IM) curves of a structure subjected to a set of synthetic ground motions is presented. To this end, an ensemble of synthetic ground motions based on available real ones is generated. This is done by using attenuation relationships, duration and suitable Gutenberg-Richter relations attributed to the considered seismic hazard at a given site by estimating a suitable distribution of magnitude and site to source distance. The study aims to clarify the significance of the duration and frequency content on the seismic performance of structures, which were not considered in developing percentile incremental dynamic analysis(IDA) curves. The collapse probabilities of two steel moment-resisting frames with different ductility levels generated by IDA and the proposed cloud method are compared at different intensity levels. When compared with conventional IDA, the suggested cloud analysis(SCA) methodology with the same run number of dynamic analyses was able to develop response hazard curves that were more consistent with site-specific seismic hazards. Eliminating the need to find many real records by generating synthetic records consistent with site-specific seismic hazards from a few available recorded ground motions is another advantage of using this scheme over the IDA method..     

Scenario-Based Seismic Risk Analysis: An Engineering Approach to the Development of Source and Site-Specific Ground Motion Time Histories in Areas of Low Seismicity

Modern engineering design methods require ground motion time histories as input for non-linear dynamic structural analysis. Non-linear dynamic methods of analysis are increasingly applied in the context of probabilistic risk assessments and for cost-effective design of critical infrastructures. In current engineering practice artificial time histories matching deterministic design spectra or probabilistic uniform hazard spectra are most frequently used for engineering analysis. The intermediate step of generation of response spectra can lead to a biased estimate of the potential damage from earthquakes because of insufficient consideration of the true energy content and strong motion duration of earthquakes. Thus, assessment of seismic risk may seem unrealistic. An engineering approach to the development of three-component ground motion time histories has been established which enables consideration of the typical characteristics of seismic sources, regional ground motion attenuation, and the main geotechnical characteristics of the target site. Therefore, the approach is suitable for use in scenario-based risk analysis a larger number of time histories are required for representation of the seismic hazard. Near-field effects are implemented in the stochastic source model using engineering approximations. The approach is suggested for use in areas of low seismicity where ground motion records of larger earthquakes are not available. Uncertainty analysis indicates that ground motions generated by individual earthquakes are well constrained and that the usual lognormal model is not the best choice for predicting the upper tail of the distribution of the ground motions.     

基于性能的钢筋混凝土框架剪力墙结构地震易损性分析

以某典型的20层钢筋混凝土框架剪力墙结构作为研究对象,研究基于性能的RC框架剪力墙结构易损性分析方法。首先选择合适的地震动记录,以0.2g为步长进行调幅后,建立300个结构-地震动样本空间,并确定结构损伤指标和性能参数;然后应用增量动力分析方法计算结构的地震动力响应,选择基本周期加速度反应谱为地震动参数,以研究结构反应的不确定性,并深入分析地震动参数与结构地震需求参数的关系;在此基础上,建立该结构基于加速度反应谱的易损性曲线进行结构易损性分析与评估。结果表明：随着地震动强度的增大,IDA曲线由单调增加变为非单调增加,分位曲线（16%,50%和84%）可以准确地衡量结构的性能;框剪结构在地震作用下的抗震性能表现良好,随着地震强度的增长,各性能超越概率大小的增长速度是不同的。     

Developing efficient scalar and vector intensity measures for IDA capacity estimation by incorporating elastic spectral shape information

Scalar and vector intensity measures are developed for the efficient estimation of limit‐state capacities through incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) by exploiting the elastic spectral shape of individual records. IDA is a powerful analysis method that involves subjecting a structural model to several ground motion records, each scaled to multiple levels of intensity (measured by the intensity measure or IM), thus producing curves of structural response parameterized by the IM on top of which limit‐states can be defined and corresponding capacities can be calculated. When traditional IMs are used, such as the peak ground acceleration or the first‐mode spectral acceleration, the IM‐values of the capacities can display large record‐to‐record variability, forcing the use of many records to achieve reliable results. By using single optimal spectral values as well as vectors and scalar combinations of them on three multistorey buildings significant dispersion reductions are realized. Furthermore, IDA is extended to vector IMs, resulting in intricate fractile IDA surfaces. The results reveal the most influential spectral regions/periods for each limit‐state and building, illustrating the evolution of such periods as the seismic intensity and the structural response increase towards global collapse. The ordinates of the elastic spectrum and the spectral shape of each individual record are found to significantly influence the seismic performance and they are shown to provide promising candidates for highly efficient IMs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conditional spectrum‐based ground motion record selection using average spectral acceleration

The use of a seismic intensity measure (IM) is paramount in decoupling seismic hazard and structural response estimation when assessing the performance of structures. For this to be valid, the IM needs to be sufficient;that is, the engineering demand parameter (EDP) response should be independent of other ground motion characteristics when conditioned on the IM. Whenever non‐trivial dependence is found, such as in the case of the IM being the first‐mode spectral acceleration, ground motion selection must be employed to generate sets of ground motion records that are consistent vis‐à‐vis the hazard conditioned on the IM. Conditional spectrum record selection is such a method for choosing records that are consistent with the site‐dependent spectral shape conditioned on the first‐mode spectral acceleration. Based on a single structural period, however the result may be suboptimal, or insufficient, for EDPs influenced by different period values, for example, peak interstory drifts or peak floor accelerations at different floors, potentially requiring different record suites for each. Recently, the log‐average spectral acceleration over a period range, AvgSA, has emerged as an improved scalar IM for building response estimation whose hazard can be evaluated using existing ground motion prediction equations. Herein, we present a recasting of conditional spectrum record selection that is based on AvgSA over a period range as the conditioning IM. This procedure ensures increased efficiency and sufficiency in simultaneously estimating multiple EDPs by means of a single IM. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic performance of wood‐frame houses in south‐western British Columbia

The seismic performance of conventional wood‐frame structures in south‐western British Columbia is analytically investigated through incremental dynamic analysis by utilizing available UBC‐SAWS models, which were calibrated based on experimental test results. To define an adequate target response spectrum that is consistent with information from national seismic hazard maps, record selection/scaling based on the conditional mean spectrum (CMS) is implemented. Furthermore, to reflect complex seismic hazard contributions from different earthquake sources (i.e. crustal events, interface events, and inslab events), we construct CMS for three earthquake types, and use them to select and scale an adequate set of ground motion records for the seismic performance evaluation. We focus on the impacts of adopting different record selection criteria and of using different shear‐wall types (Houses 1–4; in terms of seismic resistance, House 1>House 2>House 3>House 4) on the nonlinear structural response. The results indicate that the record selection procedures have significant influence on the probabilistic relationship between spectral acceleration at the fundamental vibration period and maximum inter‐story drift ratio, highlighting the importance of taking into account response spectral shapes in selecting and scaling ground motion records. Subjected to ground motions corresponding to the return period of 2500 years, House 1 is expected to experience very limited extent of damage; Houses 2 and 3 may be disturbed by minor damage; whereas House 4 may suffer from major damage occasionally. Finally, we develop statistical models of the maximum inter‐story drift ratio conditioned on a seismic intensity level for wood‐frame houses, which is useful for seismic vulnerability assessment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ground motion selection for simulation‐based seismic hazard and structural reliability assessment

This paper examines four methods by which ground motions can be selected for dynamic seismic response analyses of engineered systems when the underlying seismic hazard is quantified via ground motion simulation rather than empirical ground motion prediction equations. Even with simulation‐based seismic hazard, a ground motion selection process is still required in order to extract a small number of time series from the much larger set developed as part of the hazard calculation. Four specific methods are presented for ground motion selection from simulation‐based seismic hazard analyses, and pros and cons of each are discussed via a simple and reproducible illustrative example. One of the four methods (method 1 ‘direct analysis’) provides a ‘benchmark’ result (i.e., using all simulated ground motions), enabling the consistency of the other three more efficient selection methods to be addressed. Method 2 (‘stratified sampling’) is a relatively simple way to achieve a significant reduction in the number of ground motions required through selecting subsets of ground motions binned based on an intensity measure, IM. Method 3 (‘simple multiple stripes’) has the benefit of being consistent with conventional seismic assessment practice using as‐recorded ground motions, but both methods 2 and 3 are strongly dependent on the efficiency of the conditioning IM to predict the seismic responses of interest. Method 4 (‘generalized conditional intensity measure‐based selection’) is consistent with ‘advanced’ selection methods used for as‐recorded ground motions and selects subsets of ground motions based on multiple IMs, thus overcoming this limitation in methods 2 and 3. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于SDOF体系和高层结构的地震动强度指标研究

合理的地震动强度指标是预测和评价结构抗震响应的重要基础。选取24个周期点的单自由度体系和一个高层框架核心筒长周期结构,基于不同震源机制的100条地震动记录时程分析结果,研究16种地震动强度指标与结构地震响应的相关性,并提出考虑高阶振型影响的改进反应谱相关型地震动强度指标。研究表明：（1）不同地震动强度指标与结构地震响应的相关性差别较大,随着单自由度体系自振周期的增大,地震动强度指标与单自由度体系地震响应的相关性大致呈减小的趋势;（2）对于高层长周期结构,综合对比分析各地震动强度指标分别与顶点最大位移、最大基底剪力、最大层间位移的相关性,从工程实用角度出发,推荐地面运动峰值速度为最佳地震动强度指标;（3）由于高层长周期结构受高阶振型影响显著,采用含有高阶振型因素的反应谱强度指标可提高与结构地震响应的相关性。     

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis: Early history

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is the evaluation of annual frequencies of exceedence of ground motion levels (typically designated by peak ground acceleration or by spectral accelerations) at a site. The result of a PSHA is a seismic hazard curve (annual frequency of exceedence vs ground motion amplitude) or a uniform hazard spectrum (spectral amplitude vs structural period, for a fixed annual frequency of exceedence). Analyses of this type were first conceived in the 1960s and have become the basis for the seismic design of engineered facilities ranging from common buildings designed according to building codes to critical facilities such as nuclear power plants. This Historical Note traces the early history of PSHA. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中强地震活动区地震动衰减关系的确定

地震动衰减关系是影响地震安全性评价特别是地震区划结果的重要因素.我国现行的地震动衰减关系主要是依据6级以上地震的地面运动资料得到的,并没有考虑中强地震的衰减特性.为此,文中利用现有的烈度资料和其他可供参考的研究成果来建立我国中强地震活动区的地震动衰减关系.收集了我国华中、华南、东北等地区的51次地震的烈度等震线资料,运用单随机变量加权最小二乘回归法得到中强地震活动区烈度衰减关系.然后以美国西部地区为参考地区,运用缺乏地震动参数的地震动估计方法-地震对映射法得到中强地震活动区峰值加速度和有效峰值加速度衰减关系.最后,通过与我国强地震区和中强地震区已有的烈度衰减关系和地震动衰减关系的对比,验证了得出的我国中强地震活动区烈度衰减关系和地震动衰减关系的合理性.     

A simple ground‐motion prediction model for cumulative absolute velocity and model validation

Cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) is an important ground motion intensity measure used in seismic hazard analysis. Based on the Next Generation Attenuation strong motion database, a simple ground‐motion prediction equation is proposed for the geometric mean of as‐recorded horizontal components of CAVs using mixed regression analysis. The proposed model employs only four parameters and has a simple functional form. Validation tests are conducted to compare the proposed model with the recently developed Campbell–Bozorgnia (CB10) model using subsets of the strong motion database, as well as several recent earthquakes that are not used in developing the model. It is found that the predictive capability of the proposed model is comparable with the CB10 model, which employs a complex functional form and more parameters. The study also corroborates previous findings that CAV has higher predictability than other intensity measures such as the peak ground acceleration. The high predictability of CAV warrants the use of the proposed simple model as an alternative in seismic hazard analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of peak ground velocity on deformation demands for SDOF systems

The effect of peak ground velocity (PGV) on single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) deformation demands and for certain ground‐motion features is described by using a total of 60 soil site records with source‐to‐site distances less than 23 km and moment magnitudes between 5.5 and 7.6. The observations based on these records indicate that PGV correlates well with the earthquake magnitude and provides useful information about the ground‐motion frequency content and strong‐motion duration that can play a role on the seismic demand of structures. The statistical results computed from non‐linear response history analyses of different hysteretic models highlight that PGV correlates better with the deformation demands with respect to other ground motion intensity measures. The choice of PGV as ground motion intensity decreases the dispersion due to record‐to‐record variability of SDOF deformation demands, particularly in the short period range. The central tendencies of deformation demands are sensitive to PGV and they may vary considerably as a function of the hysteretic model and structural period. The results provided in this study suggest a consideration of PGV as a stable candidate for ground motion intensity measure in simplified seismic assessment methods that are used to estimate structural performance for earthquake hazard analysis. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intensity measures for the seismic response prediction of base-isolated buildings

Base isolation has become a widely applied technique for protecting buildings located in highly seismic areas. Due to the strongly non-linear constitutive behaviour typical of many isolation devices, the seismic response of base-isolated buildings is usually evaluated through non-linear dynamic analysis. In this type of analysis a suitable set of ground motions is needed for representing the earthquake loads and for exciting the structural model. Many methods can be found in the literature for defining the ground motions. When natural accelerograms are used, the methods mainly differ from each other based on the intensity measures used for scaling the records to the defined earthquake intensity level. Investigations have been carried out for evaluating the predictive capability of the intensity measures used in these methods: while many studies focused on ordinary buildings, only a few focused on base-isolated ones. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the most commonly used intensity measures, which are currently available in the literature, with respect to their capability to predict the seismic response of base-isolated buildings. Selected for the investigation are two frame structures characterized by a different number of storeys and base-isolated with systems having different properties. Two sets of accelerograms, consisting of ordinary and pulse-like near-fault records, are used in the analyses and in the evaluation of the intensity measures. Modified versions of existing intensity measures are also proposed, with the intent of improving the correlations between the considered intensity measures and response quantities.     

An energy-based envelope function for the stochastic simulation of earthquake accelerograms

An energy-based envelope function is developed for use in the stochastic simulation of earthquake ground motion. The envelope function is directly related to the Arias intensity of the ground motion as well to the manner in which this Arias intensity is built-up over time. It is shown that this build-up, represented by a Husid plot, can be very well modelled using a simple lognormal distribution. The proposed envelope makes use of parameters that are commonly available in seismic design situations, either following a deterministic scenario-type analysis or following a more comprehensive probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), either in terms of Arias intensity or the more common spectral acceleration. The shape parameters of the envelope function are estimated following the calculation of the analytic envelopes for a large number of records from PEER Next Generation of Attenuation (NGA) database. The envelope may also be used to predict the distribution of peak ground acceleration values corresponding to an earthquake scenario. The distribution thus obtained is remarkably consistent with those of the recent NGA models.     

Fully probabilistic seismic displacement analysis of spatially distributed slopes using spatially correlated vector intensity measures

Earthquake‐induced slope displacement is an important parameter for safety evaluation and earthquake design of slope systems. Traditional probabilistic seismic hazard analysis usually focuses on evaluating slope displacement at a particular location, and it is not suitable for spatially distributed slopes over a large region. This study proposes a computationally efficient framework for fully probabilistic seismic displacement analysis of spatially distributed slope systems using spatially correlated vector intensity measures (IMs). First, a spatial cross‐correlation model for three key ground motion IMs, that is, peak ground acceleration (PGA), Arias intensity, and peak ground velocity, is developed using 2686 ground motion recordings from 11 recent earthquakes. To reduce the computational cost, Monte Carlo simulation and data reduction techniques are utilized to generate spatially correlated random fields for the vector IMs. The slope displacement hazards over the region are further quantified using empirical predictive equations. Finally, an illustrative example is presented to highlight the importance of the spatial correlation and the advantage of using spatially correlated vector IMs in seismic hazard analysis of spatially distributed slopes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.