Common problems in automatic digitization of strong motion accelerograms

Common problems encountered in automatic digitization of strong motion accelerograms, recorded on film, are presented and discussed. These include synchronization of the time scale for the three components of motion, non-uniform film speed, trace following in case of scratches or trace crossings, distortions from high contrast preprocessing of the scanned image, and trace “rotation” resulting from rotated position of the scanned film record. Procedures for correcting or eliminating these problems are suggested. The image processing hardware has developed so much during the past 20 years, that at present it exceeds the technical requirements for processing strong motion accelerograms. The problems described in this paper result from lack of training of the operators and lack of quality control in the process, which still seems to be esoteric and highly specialized. This situation may have been caused by the low demand by the engineering profession for high quality and large volume of strong motion data.     

M computed from strong motion accelerograms recorded in Yugoslavia

It is shown that the new definition¹ of strong motion local magnitude M leads to stable estimates of magnitudes for earthquakes in Yugoslavia, with epicentral distances R <100 km and for 2.5 < M < 6.5. Tables with magnitudes computed using this new procedure are presented for all earthquakes contributing to the strong motion accelerogram files in EQINFOS for Yugoslavia.² The similarity of our findings with the analogous analyses for California suggests new possibilities for relative calibration between various local magnitude scales, which are used in southeastern Europe, and M_L in California.     

The synthesis of strong ground motion accelerograms from existing records

The paper discusses the synthesis of acceleration time histories primarily for use in structural response estimation. A proposed model for the acceleration time history is based on the summation of dispersive wave modes over the range of frequencies of typical interest to structural response. The values of the modal amplitudes and the travel times (or group velocities) are, for cases examined here, extracted from a target earthquake (or an ensemble of them). The synthetic accelerograms are constructed from these parameters with the inclusion of a probabilistic definition of those or other characteristics of the strong ground shaking and, in particular, the modal phase angle. The probability distributions of the peak acceleration and the integral of the square acceleration of the synthetic records are examined along with comparisons of the pseudo spectral velocity (PSV) response.     

Soil-structure interaction effects on strong motion accelerograms recorded on instrument shelters

The distortions of earthquake ground motions recorded in small instrument shelters as a result of soil-structure interaction effects are investigated by means of a theoretical parametric study. A total of 12 foundation geometries varying in basal radius, embedment depth and extension above the ground surface and a number of soil profiles including uniform and layered soil models were considered. The results obtained show significant amplification and deamplification of the free-field ground motion for sufficiently soft soils (β<200 m/sec) and sufficiently high frequencies (f>20 Hz).     

Generation of spectrum compatible accelerograms

In this paper a new method is presented for generating earthquake accelerograms which have pre-established response spectra. The non-stationary random nature and other salient features of the accelerograms can be taken care of by the procedure developed. The method leads to a sample spectrum which lies above the given spectrum. The generation of records to suit several spectra simultaneously can also be handled by this approach. The method is detailed first. This is followed by several numerical examples.     

Characteristics of observed strong motion accelerograms from the 2011 Lorca (Spain) Earthquake

The Lorca earthquake (southeast Spain) on May 11, 2011; Mw 5.1, and its aftershocks, have provided an important set of accelerograms recorded by the strong motion network of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional of Spain. It is particularly noticeable that the record obtained in Lorca town, very near of the fault rupture, presents a PGA value close to 0.37 g in the N30W component. This paper provides an overview of the strong motion data recorded during the Lorca seismic series, with particular attention to the accelerograms from the mainshock and foreshock and its characteristics. Due to the special circumstances of these two records, a more detailed processing has been required, in which various alternatives to adjust the baseline have been considered and analyzed. Based on this special processing, small residual displacements were obtained and reported in some of these cases. However, given the sensitivity of the process and the small obtained values, these findings should be taken with caution. Besides, response spectra have been analyzed and compared with design spectra proposed by the Spanish Seismic Code (NCSE-02) for the towns of Lorca, Alhama de Murcia and Mula. Large amplitude differences were observed in these spectra if compared to those recorded in Lorca. Also noteworthy is that the design spectra proposed for this town were exceeded by some horizontal directions of the response spectra.     

强震记录仪器响应失真校正的权函数方法—时域离散序列数值分析方法与应用研究之二

简要评述了现有强震记录仪器响应失真校正方法的优点和存在的不足。在文献[1]的基础上，提出了对强震记录进行仪器响应失真校正的权函数方法，并推导建立了相应的计算公式。通过设计真实地震动为已知的算例，对加速度摆和速度摆强震仪的未校正记录，和用不同方法获得的校正记录的精度（或误差）进行了对比分析。理论和算例分析表明，本文方法简单、实用，具有很高的计算机精度且无稳定性问题。     

消除强震加速度记录数字化误差的方法和处理软件

本文详细地分析了用数字化仪和激光扫描仪对模拟加速度记录进行数字化时所产生的误差及消除这些误差的方法，并开发了相关处理软件。数字化误差由数字化设备的系统误差和读数员在操作过程中的随机误差迭加而成，随机数字化误差是具有各态历经性质的、其振幅按高斯规律分布的平稳随机过程。利用激光扫描仪做强震记录数字化，工作效率很高。本文给出了激光扫描仪分析处理软件和消除数字化噪声实例。     

Estimation of local magnitude of rockbursts using strong motion accelerograms in the mines of Kolar Gold Fields

Rockbursts are minor earthquakes induced due to mining operations. The seismic signals recorded using geophones in the near field are generally saturated and are not suitable for estimating the true magnitudes. The strong-motion accelerograms recorded due to rockbursts are therefore used to obtain the Wood-Anderson synthetic seismograms for getting accurate and reliable values of the local magnitudes. Using several typical strong-motion accelerograms of rockbursts in the mines of Kolar Gold Fields, the magnitudes have been computed in the present study. Correlations of peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity with the magnitude, studied for the rockbursts vis-à-vis the natural earthquakes in the Koyna dam area, suggest the mechanical similarity between the two different types of events. The results and findings are described in this paper.     

Generation of accelerograms compatible with design specifications using information theory

This paper deals with the generation of seismic accelerograms which are compatible with a given response spectrum and other design specifications. The time sampling of the stochastic accelerogram yields a time series represented by a random vector in high dimension. The probability density function of this random vector is constructed using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) principle under constraints defined by the available information (design specifications). In this paper, an adapted algorithm is proposed to identify the Lagrange multipliers introduced in the MaxEnt principle to take into account the constraints. This algorithm is based on (1) the minimization of an appropriate convex functional and (2) the construction of the probability distribution defined as the invariant measure of an Itô stochastic differential equation in order to estimate the integrals in high dimension of the problem. The constraints related to a seismic accelerogram are developed explicitly. This methodology is validated through an application for which the available information is related to the variance of each component of the random vector representing the accelerogram, statistics on the response spectrum, on the peak ground acceleration, on the cumulative absolute velocity and on the end-values for the velocity and for the displacement.     

The Italian strong motion network

The Italian Strong Motion Network is a permanent monitoring system run by the Italian national emergency management department (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC). The network is known as RAN (Rete Accelerometrica Nazionale). An extensive project for updating and improving the technology of RAN instruments as well as the number of recording points was performed in the last 10 years. A wide site selection survey was carried out from eastern Sicily along the Italian peninsula, covering high seismic risk areas. The recording station density and the choice of high-quality digital strong motion instruments ensure reliability of the RAN network in the long-term. At the end of 2008, the free field sites selection and instruments installation, planned in the project, were quite completed. In planning and drawing the new RAN, special attention has been devoted to the robustness of the transmission systems, and to the distribution of new stations in order to ensure plenty of data during a seismic emergency. We spent special care both in the estimation of the RAN site responses and in the diffusion of the strong motion data. In order to better identify damaged earthquake areas, improved ground motion parameters need to be set. Such parameters will also assist future progress for engineering seismic design techniques as well as disaster mitigation.     

Site effects on strong ground motion

A review of some of the available methods to study the effects of site conditions on strong ground motion is presented. The need of unified treatment of source, path and side effects in the assessment of seismic risk is pointed out.     

强震动记录数据格式研究

强震动记录数据是构建震害防御体系的重要数据基础,又是应急救援体系的重要参数指标。当今互联网技术及数据库技术的飞速发展,对数据共享及数据应用提供了必要条件,掌握多种强震动记数据格式是上述工作的良好基础。本文着重研究国内外5种主流的强震动记录数据格式(美国USGS格式、日本K-NET格式、美国PEER格式、土耳其格式、中国UA格式),针对目前地震应急需求,提出中国强震动记录数据格式发展建议。     

Generation of hazard-consistent ground motion

This paper presents an integrated approach for evaluating seismic hazard and establishing ground motion at a site. In this approach, we combine the advantage of probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard analyses and generate synthetic ground motion by considering the characteristics of seismic source, path attenuation, and local soil condition. Furthermore, uncertainties in seismic and soil parameters are taken into account. The proposed approach can be used to establish site-specific ground motion for engineering applications.     

Rotational components of surface strong ground motion

Rotational components of seismic waves have been estimated using the strong motion array in Taiwan, SMART-1. The inner rings of accelerographs, covering an approximately circular area of 3 km², permit a decomposition of travelling waves with wavelengths in the range 0.5 to 5.0 km and frequencies from 0.1 to 5 Hz. Rotational components of the strain field, obtained from station pairs and averaged over the array using stacking techniques, were computed for five different earthquakes with M_s magnitude 5.7 to 7.8, and epicentral distances 6 to 84 km. The results indicate peak rotation values about a vertical axis on the order of 4 × 10^?5 rad at an approximately 2.5 s period. The measured values for pure rotation and rocking are in agreement with the spatial coherency structure observed in these earthquakes. For comparison, significant effects to engineered structures generally appear when curl u > 10^?4 rad. The estimates are important for design of scaled engineered models for soil-structure interaction experiments.     

Rotation-invariant mean duration of strong ground motion

Strong-motion duration is usually computed separately for three components of recorded ground-motion time series. This results in different values of duration for the three components. Furthermore, the computed duration values are dependent on the sensor orientation. Physically, such dependence is not desirable. In this work, computing duration based on resultant recorded motion instead of individual components is proposed. Such a measure of duration is shown to be rotation-invariant and hence independent of the sensor axes. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the duration of resultant motion represents the mean duration for all possible arbitrary sensor orientations in three-dimensional space. The results indicate that the apparent difference between duration of horizontal and vertical motion reported in the literature is not universal to all definitions of duration. A set of 462 three-component accelerograms from Europe and the Middle East is used to demonstrate and support the presented findings and arguments.     

Neural estimation of strong ground motion duration

This paper presents and discusses the use of neural networks to determine strong ground motion duration. Accelerometric data recorded in the Mexican cities of Puebla and Oaxaca are used to develop a neural model that predicts this duration in terms of the magnitude, epicenter distance, focal depth, soil characterization and azimuth. According to the above the neural model considers the effect of the seismogenic zone and the contribution of soil type to the duration of strong ground motion. The final scheme permits a direct estimation of the duration since it requires easy-to-obtain variables and does not have restrictive hypothesis. The results presented in this paper indicate that the soft computing alternative, via the neural model, is a reliable recording-based approach to explore and to quantify the effect of seismic and site conditions on duration estimation. An essential and significant aspect of this new model is that, while being extremely simple, it also provides estimates of strong ground motions duration with remarkable accuracy. Additional but important side benefits arising from the model’s simplicity are the natural separation of source, path, and site effects and the accompanying computational efficiency.     

近断层强地震动场预测

以1997年4月11日新疆伽师地震（Mw6.1）为例,详细介绍了近断层强地震动场的预测方法.首先,用有限断层震源建模方法建立了该次地震的震源模型;然后,基于动力学拐角频率的地震动随机模拟方法,模拟了该次地震仅有主震加速度记录、且位于巨厚土层上的三个台站的加速度时程,并用实际地震记录进行了验证.在此基础上,基于预测的近断层77个节点的加速度时程的峰值绘制了该次地震的加速度场.结果表明,上述方法模拟的加速度时程在0.5 Hz以上的高频段是可行的、实用的;预测的近断层加速度场具有非常明显的上盘效应.地表最大加速度的范围与断层面上最大凹凸体位置相对应,说明与断层面上凹凸体相对应的地面上的建（构）筑物将会遭受到较为严重的震害.     

中国强震动观测展望

强震动观测是震灾预防与地震应急的重要基础。本在系统总结强震动观测的国际现状与发展趋势的基础上,结合我国的防震减灾实际需要和经济实力,提出了我国未来十年强震动观测的发展规划。     

Wavelet-based generation of spatially correlated accelerograms

For the seismic analysis of complex or nonlinear extended structures, it is useful to generate a set of properly correlated earthquake accelerograms that are consistent with a specified seismic hazard. A new simulation approach is presented in this paper for the generation of ensembles of spatially correlated accelerograms such that the simulated motions are consistent with (i) a parent accelerogram in the sense of temporal variations in frequency content, (ii) a design spectrum in the mean sense, and (iii) with a given instantaneous coherency structure. The formulation is based on the extension of stochastic decomposition technique to wavelet domain via the method of spectral factorization. A complex variant of the modified Littlewood-Paley wavelet function is proposed for the wavelet-based representation of earthquake accelerograms, such that this explicitly brings out the phase information of the signal, besides being able to decompose it into component time-histories having energy in non-overlapping frequency bands. The proposed approach is illustrated by generating ensembles of accelerograms at four stations.