Arma models for earthquake ground motions

This paper outlines the use of discrete, autoregressive/moving-average (ARMA) models for identification and estimation of parameters in models derived from analysis of uniformly digitized earthquake ground motion acceleration data. Such models are of equal generality as compared to continuous-time models and have a number of significant advantages for purposes of digital analysis and simulation. The structure of ARMA models is briefly described, their relation to continuous models noted, and results of their application to a number of recorded accelerograms summarized.     

Digital simulation of multivariate earthquake ground motions

In this paper a new generation procedure of multivariate earthquake ground motion is presented. The technique takes full advantage of the decomposition of the power spectral density matrix by means of its eigenvectors. The application of the method to multivariate ground accelerations shows some very interesting physical properties which allows one to obtain significant reduction of the computational effort in the generation of sample functions relative to multivariate earthquake ground motion processes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Near-field horizontal and vertical earthquake ground motions

Strong-motion attenuation relationships are presented for peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration, energy density, maximum absolute input energy for horizontal and vertical directions and for the ratio of vertical to horizontal of these ground motion parameters. These equations were derived using a worldwide dataset of 186 strong-motion records recorded with 15 km of the surface projection of earthquakes between M_s=5.8 and 7.8. The effect of local site conditions and focal mechanism is included in some of these equations.     

Characteristics of 3-dimensional earthquake ground motions

An orthogonal set of principal axes is defined for earthquake ground motions along which the component variances have maximum, minimum and intermediate values and the covariances equal zero. Corresponding axes are defined which yield maximum values for the covariances. The orthogonal transformations involved are identical in form to those used in the transformation of stress. Examination of real accelerograms reveals that the major principal axis points in the general direction of the epicentre and the minor principal axis is nearly vertical. It is concluded that artificially generated components of ground motion need not be correlated statistically provided they are directed along a set of principal axes.     

Long-period ground motions from the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake

We study characteristics of long-period ground motions from the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake (Mj 8.0), a large interplate earthquake, based on spatial distribution maps and attenuation relationships for four kinds of peak ground velocity (PGV) value. The first kind (PGV(WB)) is obtained from a maximal value of vector sum of the three-component, wide-band velocity seismograms, and the other three kinds (PGV(BP10), PGV(BP20), and PGV(BP30)) are obtained from a maximal value of vector sum of the three-component, narrow band-pass filtered velocity seismograms (the central periods are 10, 20, and 30 s). The spatial distribution maps for all kinds of PGV value show azimuth dependence; the PGV values in Hokkaido, northern side of the epicenter are larger than those in Tohoku, southwestern side of the epicenter, when compared at a comparable distance. We find that the features result from the radiation pattern of long-period surface waves, that is, the source effect. The attenuation relationships show the following trends: The PGV(WB) values are larger than the sum of the PGV(BP10), PGV(BP20), and PGV(BP30) at distances (D) less than 200 km, while the PGV(WB) values are comparable to the sum of the PGV(BP20) and PGV(BP30) at D > 200 km. This indicates that the PGV(WB) values at D < 200 km are affected by ground motions with periods less than 10 s, while long-period surface waves mainly contribute to the PGV(WB) values at D > 200 km. The basin site effects generate a patchy pattern in the spatial distribution maps and a large scattering in the attenuation relationships for the PGV(WB) and PGV(BP10) values. Finally, we conclude that the PGV(WB) values from the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake are controlled by the radiation pattern of long-period S and surface waves and various basin site effects.     

Multifractal characteristic analysis of near-fault earthquake ground motions

This study aims to reveal the multi-scaling behavior and quantify the irregularity of near-fault earthquake ground motions from a new perspective of multifractal theory. Based on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis, the multifractal characteristic parameters of acceleration time series for typical near-fault ground motions are calculated, and their correlations with two period parameters (i.e., mean period T_m and characteristic period T_c) and box-counting fractal dimensions are analyzed. Numerical results of strong nonlinear dependence of generalized Hurst exponents h(q) upon the fluctuation orders q indicate that near-fault ground motions present the multifractal properties and long-range correlation obviously. Furthermore, the scaling exponent h(2) of near-fault records has a strong correlation with their periods T_m and T_c, and strongly negative correlation with their box dimension. Moreover, h(2) can be regarded as a measure of frequency content and irregularity degree of strong earthquake ground motions. Finally, it is pointed out that the long-range correlation of small and large fluctuation is the major source of multifractality of near-fault ground motions.     

利用高频GPS技术进行强震地面运动监测的研究进展

回顾了高频(1 Hz) GPS在地学应用中的研究进展和主要的数据处理方法,全面比较了高频GPS与地震仪的工作原理与性能,认为高频GPS可为后者进行有效的补充;分析了高频GPS应用于监测短周期强震地面运动的技术优势,以及在处理方法和实际的地学应用中存在的不足;通过对高频GPS的应用领域与发展前景的研究,对我国开展高频GPS数据的处理方法与地学应用研究提出了自己的观点和看法.     

地下水位变化对地震地面运动的影响

本文以Biot提出的流体饱和多孔介质波动理论为基础, 建立了成层地基模型, 把地下水位以下的饱和土层用水饱和多孔介质模拟, 地下水位以上土层用气饱和多孔介质模拟. 通过研究入射平面简谐波在成层地基中的传播, 分析了地下水位变化对地震地面运动的影响. 结果表明: P波入射下, 当土体骨架相对刚度较小时, 地下水位变化对地表位移尤其是竖向地表位移幅值影响较大, 随着地下水位的下降, 竖向位移逐渐增加, 相对应的峰值频率逐渐减小; 当土体骨架相对刚度较大时, 地下水位变化对地面运动影响不大.      

Analysis of earthquake ground motions using an improved Hilbert–Huang transform

Some limitations of the Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) for nonlinear and nonstationary signal processing are remarked. As an enhancement to the HHT, a time varying vector autoregressive moving average (VARMA) model based method is proposed to calculate the instantaneous frequencies of the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) obtained from the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) of a signal. By representing the IMFs as time varying VARMA model and using the Kalman filter to estimate the time varying model parameters, the instantaneous frequencies are calculated according to the time varying parameters, then the instantaneous frequencies and the envelopes derived from the cubic spline interpolation of the maxima of IMFs are used to yield the Hilbert spectrum. The analysis of the length of day dataset and the ground motion record El Centro (1940, N–S) shows that the proposed method offers advantages in frequency resolution, and produces more physically meaningful and readable Hilbert spectrum than the original HHT method, short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and wavelet transform (WT). The analysis of the seismic response of a building during the 1994 Northridge earthquake shows that the proposed method is a powerful tool for structural damage detection, which is expected as the promising area for future research.     

The inelastic vibration absorber subjected to earthquake ground motions

Two storey bilinear hysteretic structures have been studied with a view to exploring the possibility of using the dynamic vibration absorber concept in earthquake-resistant design. The response of the lower storey has been optimized for the Taft 1952, S69°E accelerogram with reference to parameters such as frequency ratio, yield strength ratio and mass ratio. The influence of viscous damping has also been examined.     

Inferred ground motions on Guadeloupe during the 2004 Les Saintes earthquake

Accurate estimates of the ground motions that occurred during damaging earthquakes are a vital part of many aspects of earthquake engineering, such as the study of the size and cause of the uncertainties within earthquake risk assessments. This article compares a number of methods to estimate the ground shaking that occurred on Guadeloupe (French Antilles) during the 21st November 2004 (M _w 6.3) Les Saintes earthquake, with the aim of providing more accurate shaking estimates for the investigation of the sources of uncertainties within loss evaluations, based on damage data from this event. The various techniques make differing use of the available ground-motion recordings of this earthquake and by consequence the estimates obtained by the different approaches are associated with differing uncertainties. Ground motions on the French Antilles are affected by strong local site effects, which have been extensively investigated in previous studies. In this article, use is made of these studies in order to improve the shaking estimates. It is shown that the simple methods neglecting the spatial correlation of earthquake shaking lead to uncertainties similar to those predicted by empirical ground-motion models and that these are uniform across the whole of Guadeloupe. In contrast, methods (such as the ShakeMap approach) that take account of the spatial correlation in motions demonstrate that shaking within roughly 10 km of a recording station (covering a significant portion of the investigated area) can be defined with reasonable accuracy but that motions at more distant points are not well constrained.     

相位演化零点时间与地震动模拟研究

提出了多频分量相位演化零点时间的概念.对于复杂非平稳地震动过程,为降低求解多频分量相位演化零点时间的工作量,引入地震波波群演化的思想,在地震波相位谱敏感性分析的基础上,考察了典型实测地震动时程的模拟.结果表明,拟合地震动过程与实测非平稳地震动吻合较好,本文提出的相位谱重构方法具有重要的实践意义.同时,这一方法也为非平稳...     

Variation of earthquake ground motions within a very small distance

At present, dense strong motion observation networks have been established in Japan. One of the important findings based on these networks is that strong ground motions are quite site-dependent. Characteristics of observed ground motions at nearby stations can exhibit a significant variation, even when the stations are within several hundreds of meters. These observations raise one important question; if characteristics of strong ground motions exhibit large variations even for smaller regions, we should be concerned about the application of observed or predicted ground motions for the assessment of structures. In particular, if ground-motion parameters such as PGA, PGV, Spectral Intensity, etc., exhibit large variations for smaller regions, their use for the seismic design and practice will be subject to restriction. In other words, the evaluation of variation of these parameters is an important issue. From such a point of view, the authors investigated the variation of observed ground motions within a very small distance in this study. First of all, fifteen couples of adjacent strong motion stations in Japan, where the distance is within 100 m, were listed up based on our field reconnaissance. Then, microtremor measurements were carried out at each of the station pairs. Next, variation of recorded earthquake ground motions for the station pairs was examined based on various ground motion parameters and response spectra. Moreover, we investigated the key factor which is affecting the variation of observed ground motions.     

On the significance of phase content in earthquake ground motions

A number of problems relating to characteristics of harmonic phase angles contained in earthquake ground motions are discussed, which have been mostly overlooked in the past in contrast with the importance placed on harmonic amplitudes. Particularly, the significance of the concept of phase differences in certain properties of earthquake ground motions is emphasized. A few applications of this new concept to earthquake engineering problems are illustrated as well.     

地震动反应谱变异系数分析

利用随机振动理论,分别考虑3种地震动随机过程模型,本文对反应谱变异系数及相关问题进行了深入分析。研究结果表明：在一定范围内,地震动模型、场地条件和结构体系阻尼比对结构加速度反应越零率有明显影响,但这三者对反应谱变异系数的量值影响不大。在工程设计中,可以采用白噪声模型按本文给出公式计算反应谱变异系数。     

A study on the duration and amplitude characteristics of earthquake ground motions

The duration, total power, rms amplitude, and peak ground acceleration (PGA) are examined using the data from the KiK-net digital borehole accelerograph arrays in Japan during three large earthquakes. We investigate correlations between the duration, PGA on the surface and hypocentral distance, instrumental seismic intensity, and the local site conditions. Also considered in this paper, are correlation between the duration and PGA. This present study suggests that PGA is inversely proportional to the duration.Comparing the duration, total power, rms amplitude, and PGA on the surface with those at the bottom of borehole, the duration and maximum amplitude characteristics of earthquake ground motions are investigated with emphasis on site amplification due to the local site conditions. The difference of amplification factors is not only site-dependent but also event-dependent. The comparison of the site amplification factors and the average shear-wave velocity in the upper 30-m showed a good agreement.This paper indicated that the duration and amplitude characteristics suffer a reciprocal effect due to the local site conditions and the site dependency of maximum amplitude PGA is greater than that of the duration. In view of the results, the duration is not less important than the maximum amplitude and frequency content in earthquake engineering. Moreover, this study provided meaningful information of input motion available to earthquake-resistant design.     

Site dependence of far-source ground motions during the Wenchuan earthquake

This paper aimed to examine the site dependence and evaluate the methods for site analysis of far-source ground motions. This was achieved through the examination of frequency content estimated by different methods based on strong ground motions recorded at twelve far-source stations in Shandong province during the Wenchuan earthquake. The stations were located in sites with soil profiles ranging from code classes Ⅰ to Ⅲ. Approaches used included the Fourier amplitude spectrum (FAS), the earthquake response spectrum (ERS), the spectral ratio between the horizontal and the vertical components (H/V), the spectral ratio between the spectra at the site and at a reference site (SRRS), and coda wave analysis (CWA). Results showed that major periods of these ground motions obtained by FAS, ERS and H/V ratio methods were all evidently larger than site dominant periods; the periods were also different from each other and mainly reflected the frequency content of long period components. Prominent periods obtained by the SRRS approach neither illuminated the long period aspect nor efficiently determined site features of the motions. The CWA resulted in a period close to site period for stations with good quality recordings. The results obtained in this study will be useful for the evaluation of far-source effect in constructing seismic design spectra and in selecting methods for ground motion site analysis.