Behaviour of near-source vertical and horizontal response spectra at smart-1 array,Taiwan

Over 700 accelerograms recorded from 12 earthquakes in northeast Taiwan have been analysed for investigating the behaviour of the vertical and horizontal peak and spectral ground motion in the near-source region. Pseudo-relative spectral velocities (PSV), at 5 per cent critical damping for 23 frequencies in the range of engineering interest have been subjected to non-linear regression procedures in terms of magnitude and hypocentral distance. Predicted response spectra for several discrete distances and magnitudes are presented. The results show that the shape of response spectra for both vertical and horizontal components of ground motion is magnitude- as well as distance-dependent. The 2/3 ratio of vertical to horizontal ground motion, commonly used in engineering applications, appears unconservative in the very near field for high frequency ground motion. However, it falls below 1/2 at distances greater than 50 km. The same ratio for peak ground velocity (PGV) and peak ground displacement (PGD) tends to increase with distance—the latter at a faster rate.