Engineering implications of the 1985 nahanni earthquakes

A series of strong ground motions was recorded during a set of earthquakes which occurred in the North Nahanni River area of the Northwest Territories of Canada in late 1985. The strongest of these motions were recorded within 10 km of the epicentre of a magnitude 6.9 event; peak accelerations were well above 1g and peak velocities exceeded 0.4 m/s. This paper describes a study of the engineering characteristics of the Nahanni strong motions, particularly as they affect the response of building structures. The response characteristics are analysed in terms of the response spectra and the unit velocity base shear coefficients for multi-degree-of-freedom elastic frame structures. An analysis of the strong motion durations of the records and several measures of intensity is also included. The characteristics of the Nahanni records are compared with those of typical strong seismic ground motions and an ensemble of epicentral region seismic motions recorded under similar conditions. Comparisons are also made with the equivalent parameters in the 1985 edition of the National Building Code of Canada. It is concluded that the Nahanni records are very strong seismic ground motion records with relatively unusual response characteristics, even when compared with those of other records obtained within the epicentral region. The impact of these characteristics on engineering design is most significant for low period structures in epicentral regions. The specifications of typical design codes do not adequately describe the response to such records for very low periods.     

Ground motion characterization and seismic hazard assessment in Spain: context,problems and recent developments

This article points out some particular features conditioning seismic hazard assessments (SHA) in Spain, a region with low–moderate seismicity. Although sized earthquakes occurred in the past, as evidenced by historical documents and neotectonic studies, no large events occurred during the last decades. The absence of strong motion records corresponding to earthquakes with magnitude larger than 5.5 is an important obstacle for the development of ground motion models constrained by local data, with the consequent difficulty in SHA studies. In this paper, some recent developments aiming at providing solutions to these difficulties are presented. Specifically, a strong motion databank containing a massive collection of accelerograms and response spectra from different configurations source-path-site corresponding to earthquakes all over the world is introduced, together with software utilities for its management. A first application of this databank is the development of specific ground motion models for Spain and for the Mediterranean region that predict peak ground accelerations as a function of several definitions of magnitude, distance and soil class. The predictive power of these ground motion models is tested by contrasting their estimates with recently recorded ground motions. The comparison between our ground-motion models with others proposed in the literature for other areas reveals a regular overestimation of the expected ground motions at Spanish sites by the non-local models. Consequently, SHA studies based in external models may overestimate the predicted hazard at the Iberian sites. In the last part of the paper a method for checking whether the response spectra proposed in the Spanish Building Code (NCSE-02) are consistent with actual accelerometric data from recent low magnitude earthquakes is applied. The spectral shapes of the Spanish Building Code NCSE-02 are compared with the response spectral shapes deduced from the available accelerograms by normalising the response spectra with the recorded PGA. It is appreciated that the NCSE-02 spectral shapes are exceeded by a large number of actual spectral shapes for short periods (around 0.2 s), a result to be taken into account in further revisions of the NCSE-02 code. The issues tackled in this work constitute not only an improvement for ground-motion characterisation in Spain, but also provide guidelines of general interest for potential applications in other regions with similar seismicity.     

Response spectrum of seismic design code for zones lack of near-fault strong earth- quake records

It was shown from the study on the recently near-fault earthquake ground motions that the near-fault effects were seldom considered in the existing Chinese seismic code. Referring to the UBC97 design concept for near-fault factors, based on the collected world-widely free-site records of near-fault earthquakes ground motions classified by earthquake magnitude and site condition, the attenuation relationship expressions of the acceleration spectrum demand at the key points within the long period and moderate period were established in term of the earthquake magnitude and the site condition. Furthermore, the near-fault factors’ expressions about the earthquake magnitude and the fault distance were deduced for the area lack of near-fault strong earthquake records. Based on the current Chinese Building Seismic Design Code, the near-fault effect factors and the modified design spectral curves, which were valuable for the seismic design, were proposed to analyze the seismic response of structures.     

Estimation of strong seismic ground motion for engineering use in Perth Western Australia

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) was performed to determine two alternate magnitude-distance combinations for the 475 yr event, and the worst-case scenario event in Perth, Western Australia. Regional strong ground motion (SGM) time histories on rock sites are used to modify an eastern North America (ENA) seismic model to suit southwest Western Australian (SWWA) conditions. This model is then used to stochastically simulate a set of 475 yr design events and a set of worst-case scenario event for rock sites in the Perth metropolitan area (PMA). The simulated time histories are then used as input to typical soft soil sites in the PMA to estimate surface ground motions. The spectral accelerations of the ground motions on rock and soil sites are calculated and compared with the corresponding design spectra defined in current and previous Australian earthquake loading code. Discussions of the adequacy of the code spectra and the differences to ours, along with implications on structural response and damage are made.     

汶川地震远场地震动场地相关性与分析方法评价

为考查远场地震动的场地相关性并评价一些场地特性分析方法的适用性,采用不同方法对汶川地震山东省12个远场台站的强震记录进行了分析.选取台站分别位于按建筑抗震设计规范(CBC)场地划分中的Ⅰ—Ⅲ类场地上.地震动记录的分析方法包括傅里叶幅值谱法,地震反应谱法,水平与竖向谱比率法,参考点谱比率法,以及尾波分析等.结果表明,按傅里叶幅值谱法,地震反应谱法,水平与竖向谱比法计算得到的卓越周期均远大于台站场地的卓越周期,不同方法得到的结果之间也有较大差别,且主要反映长周期地震动的卓越频率;参考点谱比率法的结果未反映地震动的卓越周期,也与场地的卓越周期差别较大;对完整记录尾波分析所得的结果比较接近场地的卓越周期.希望本文能为考虑远场地震作用时设计谱的建立,以及场地特性估计时地震动分析方法的选取提供参考依据.     

缺乏近断层强震观测资料地区抗震设计规范反应谱研究

根据最近几次的近断层地震观测记录研究显示,在现行结构抗震设计规范中很少考虑近断层效应的影响,对于缺乏近断层强震观测资料地区,抗震设计规范的改进方法及近断层效应的设计参数还没有统一结论. 本文基于UBC97近断层因子设计理念, 在收集世界范围内近断层观测记录的基础上,按场地和震级进行分类,建立了中长周期关键点处的加速度谱需求的衰减关系式,推导给出了缺乏近断层观测资料地区近断层影响因子的震级和断层距的关系式. 并以我国现行的建筑抗震设计规范为基础,建议了近断层影响因子的参考取值和修正后的反应谱曲线,为我国结构抗震设计提供了参考.      

Correlations of three-component ground motions from the 23 June 2010 Val-des-Bois, Québec, earthquake

In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of three-component ground motions recorded during the $M_\text{w}\,5.2$ Val-des-Bois (Québec) earthquake, which occurred on the 23 June 2010. The earthquake is the largest recorded event in eastern Canada within the last decade. The records analyzed were provided by a strong motion monitoring network, comprising accelerometers located at sites with different soil conditions. The two orthogonal horizontal components and one vertical component at each recording station are uncorrelated to determine their principal directions, and the results obtained are used to characterize intensity ratios between the three uncorrelated components. A new hodograph representation is proposed to highlight the correlation between accelerations and displacement trajectories along various time increments at each recording station. The principal components are discussed in light of seismographic data, local site conditions, and trajectories. Time–frequency analyses of the uncorrelated records are also conducted to compare the distribution of spectral amplitudes and frequency content along the three principal components during the shaking. The results of this work shed more light on the characteristics of three-component ground motions from an important Eastern North America earthquake, and could be used to calibrate simulated multicomponent ground motions in this region.     

Effect of peak ground acceleration to velocity ratio on ductility demand of inelastic systems

A statistical analysis is performed to investigate the significance of peak ground acceleration to velocity ratio (a/v) on the displacement ductility demand of simple bilinear hysteretic systems. Three groups of earthquake records representative of low, normal and high<a/v ranges are used as input ground motions. The design yield strength of the inelastic systems is specified from the base shear formula in the 1980 National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 1980) and that in NBCC 1985 respectively. The former case represents the common practice of specifying seismic design base shear based on a peak site acceleration, while in the latter case the base shear is specified based on peak ground velocity and a/v ratio. Mean displacement ductility demands are obtained for the three groups of ground motions; and the corresponding dispersion characteristics are examined. The results show that the ground motion<a/v range has a significant effect on the displacement ductility demand, and it should be accounted for in design strength specification.     

Pseudo relative velocity spectra of earthquake ground motion at high frequencies

The currently available empirical scaling laws for estimation of spectral amplitudes are limited to periods longer than 0–04 s. However, for design of equipment and stiff structures on multiple and distant supports, exposed to strong shaking near faults where peak accelerations can exceed 1g, specification of design ground motions at higher frequencies is required. This paper presents a method for extrapolation of pseudo-relative velocity spectral amplitudes of strong earthquake shaking to short periods (0–01 < T < 0–04 sec). The extrapolated spectra can be used as a physical basis for defining design spectral amplitudes in this higher-frequency range. The analysis in this paper implies that for typical strong motion accelerations, particularly on sedimentary sites in California, the peak ground accelerations are projected to be unaffected by frequencies higher than those recorded. Consequently, in California, the high-frequency pseudo-acceleration spectra can be approximated from the recorded absolute peak accelerations.     

Seismic demand models for probabilistic risk analysis of near fault vertical ground motion effects on ordinary highway bridges

The influence of vertical ground motions on the seismic response of highway bridges is not very well understood. Recent studies suggest that vertical ground motions can substantially increase force and moment demands on bridge columns and girders and cannot be overlooked in seismic design of bridge structures. For an evaluation of vertical ground motion effects on the response of single‐bent two‐span highway bridges, a systematic study combining the critical engineering demand parameters (EDPs) and ground motion intensity measures (IMs) is required. Results of a parametric study examining a range of highway bridge configurations subjected to selected sets of horizontal and vertical ground motions are used to determine the structural parameters that are significantly amplified by the vertical excitations. The amplification in these parameters is modeled using simple equations that are functions of horizontal and vertical spectral accelerations at the corresponding horizontal and vertical fundamental periods of the bridge. This paper describes the derivation of seismic demand models developed for typical highway overcrossings by incorporating critical EDPs and combined effects of horizontal and vertical ground motion IMs depending on the type of the parameter and the period of the structure. These models may be used individually as risk‐based design tools to determine the probability of exceeding the critical levels of EDP for pre‐determined levels of ground shaking or may be included explicitly in probabilistic seismic risk assessments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic isolation of cable‐stayed bridges for near‐field ground motions

This study examines the efficacy of using seismic isolation to favorably influence the seismic response of cable‐stayed bridges subjected to near‐field earthquake ground motions. In near‐field earthquake ground motions, large amplitude spectral accelerations can occur at long periods where many cable‐stayed bridges have significant structural response modes. This combination of factors can result in large tower accelerations and base shears. In this study, lead–rubber bearing seismic isolators were modeled for three cable‐stayed bridges, and three cases of isolation were examined for each bridge. The nine isolated bridge configurations, plus three non‐isolated configurations as references, were subjected to near‐field earthquake ground motions using three‐dimensional time‐history analyses. Introduction of a small amount of isolation is shown to be very beneficial in reducing seismic accelerations and forces while at the same time producing only a modest increase in the structural displacements. There is a low marginal benefit to continue to increase the amount of isolation by further lengthening the period of the structure because structural forces and accelerations reduce at a diminishing rate whereas structural displacements increase substantially. In virtually all cases the base shears in the isolated bridges were reduced by at least 50several instances by up to 80individual near‐field records showed large variability from one record to the next, with coefficients of variation about the mean as large as 50assessing the characteristics of near‐field ground motion for use in isolation design of cable‐stayed bridges. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

2015年4月25日尼泊尔廓尔喀M_S8.1级地震强地面运动

2015年4月25日尼泊尔廓尔喀地区发生MS8.1级地震,本文分析了加德满都强震台站的强地震动记录特征,其水平向地震动表现为明显的脉冲地震动,脉冲周期约为6.0s,反映了近场地震动的方向性效应;处于深厚沉积层上的加德满都谷地对地震动有一定的放大作用,且主震的场地峰值频率向低频段偏移,出现明显的场地非线性反应;采用随机有限断层方法模拟的空间地震动分布与宏观地震烈度图符合较好,可以为分析宏观震害提供参考;通过与尼泊尔设计反应谱对比,得出在短周期与长周期段,加德满都台站的水平向地震动的反应谱远高于设计反应谱,说明即使严格按照尼泊尔建筑抗震规范设计施工的建筑结构也难以抵御此次地震的破坏。     

Ground motion characteristics of the Chi‐Chi earthquake of 21 September 1999

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ground motion characteristics of the Chi‐Chi earthquake (21 September 1999) as well as the interpretation of structural damage due to this earthquake. Over 300 strong motion records were collected from the strong motion network of Taiwan for this earthquake. A lot of near‐field ground motion data were collected. They provide valuable information on the study of ground motion characteristics of pulse‐like near‐field ground motions as well as fault displacement. This study includes: attenuation of ground motion both in PGA and spectral amplitude, principal direction, elastic and inelastic response analysis of a SDOF system subjected to near‐field ground motion collected from this event. The distribution of spectral acceleration and spectral velocity along the Chelungpu fault is discussed. Based on the mode decomposition method the intrinsic mode function of ground acceleration of this earthquake is examined. A long‐period wave with large amplitude was observed in most of the near‐source ground acceleration. The seismic demand from the recorded near‐field ground motion is also investigated with an evaluation of seismic design criteria of Taiwan Building Code. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Near-fault ground motion bi-normalized pseudo-velocity spectra and its applications

Ground motions with forward-directivity effect in the near-fault region are obviously different from ordinary far-field ground motions. Design spectral models for this kind of motions have been proposed by correlating sim-ple pulses with parameters attenuation relationships in a previous study of the authors. To further test the applica-bility of the established design spectral model, we analyze ground motion pseudo-velocity response spectra (PVS), normalized pseudo-velocity spectra (NPVS) and bi-normalized pseudo-velocity spectra (BNPVS) of 53 typical near-fault forward-directivity ground motions. It is found that BNPVS not only has more salient features to reflect the difference between soil and rock sites, but also has less scattering to reveal the nature of forward-directivity motions. And then, BNPVS is used for prediction of design spectra accounting for the influence of site conditions, and the constructed design spectra are compared with those spectra established previously. It is concluded that site condition can heavily affect ground motions, buildings on rock can be even more dangerous than those on soil sites, in particular for ordinary buildings with short to middle vibration periods. Finally, pulse models are also suggested for structural analyses in the near-fault region.     

主余震序列型地震动作用下RC框架结构损伤耗能研究

强震发生后通常伴随着余震,余震的发生会加重结构损伤甚至引发倒塌。为了量化研究主余震序列型地震动对结构损伤的影响,以一栋3层钢筋混凝土框架结构为研究对象,选取了10条实际的主余震记录作为地震动输入,采用ABAQUS非线性有限元软件对该框架结构进行非线性动力时程分析,并依据结构局部和整体损伤耗能指标来评价主余震序列型地震动对框架结构累积损伤的影响。研究结果表明:序列地震会加剧结构底层柱的局部损伤耗能,特别是对底层中柱的影响更加明显;序列地震作用下的结构整体损伤耗能平均值相对于单主震作用下增加约30%;当余震与主震的第一周期谱加速度指标的比值Sa （T₁）_余震/Sa （T₁）_主震较大时,序列地震对结构损伤需求的影响更为显著。     

Effect of seawater on incident plane P and SV waves at ocean bottom and engineering characteristics of offshore ground motion records off the coast of southern California,USA

The effect of seawater on vertical ground motions is studied via a theoretical method and then actual offshore ground motion records are analyzed using a statistical method. A theoretical analysis of the effect of seawater on incident plane P and SV waves at ocean bottom indicate that on one hand, the affected frequency range of vertical ground motions is prominent due to P wave resonance in the water layer if the impedance ratio between the seawater and the underlying medium is large, but it is greatly suppressed if the impedance ratio is small; on the other hand, for the ocean bottom interface model selected herein, vertical ground motions consisting of mostly P waves are more easily affected by seawater than those dominated by SV waves. The statistical analysis of engineering parameters of offshore ground motion records indicate that:(1) Under the infl uence of softer surface soil at the seafl oor, both horizontal and vertical spectral accelerations of offshore motions are exaggerated at long period components, which leads to the peak spectral values moving to a longer period.(2) The spectral ratios(V/H) of offshore ground motions are much smaller than onshore ground motions near the P wave resonant frequencies in the water layer; and as the period becomes larger, the effect of seawater becomes smaller, which leads to a similar V/H at intermediate periods(near 2 s). These results are consistent with the conclusions of Boore and Smith(1999), but the V/H of offshore motion may be smaller than the onshore ground motions at longer periods(more than 5 s).     

Seismic performance of three-dimensional frame structures with underground stories

This paper investigates the seismic performance of moment-resisting frame steel buildings with multiple underground stories resting on shallow foundations. A parametric study that involved evaluating the nonlinear seismic response of five, ten and fifteen story moment-resisting frame steel buildings resting on flexible ground surface, and buildings having one, three and five underground stories was performed. The buildings were assumed to be founded on shallow foundations. Two site conditions were considered: soil class C and soil class E, corresponding to firm and soft soil deposits, respectively. Vancouver seismic hazard has been considered for this study. Synthetic earthquake records compatible with Vancouver uniform hazard spectrum (UHS), as specified by the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) 2005, have been used as input motion. It was found that soil–structure interaction (SSI) can greatly affect the seismic performance of buildings in terms of the seismic storey shear and moment demand, and the deformations of their structural components. Although most building codes postulate that SSI effects generally decrease the force demand on buildings, but increase the deformation demand, it was found that, for some of the cases considered, SSI effects increased both the force and deformation demand on the buildings. The SSI effects generally depend on the stiffness of the foundation and the number of underground stories. SSI effects are significant for soft soil conditions and negligible for stiff soil conditions. It was also found that SSI effects are significant for buildings resting on flexible ground surface with no underground stories, and gradually decrease with the increase of the number of underground stories.     

A comparative study of the design spectra defined by Eurocode 8, UBC, IBC and Turkish Earthquake Code on R/C sample buildings

Earthquake codes have been revised and updated depending on the improvements in the representation of ground motions, soils and structures. These revisions have been more frequently seen in recent years. One of the key changes in earthquake codes has been performed on the design spectra. In this paper, the design spectra recommended by Turkish Earthquake Code and three other well known codes (Uniform Building Code, Eurocode 8, and International Building Code) are considered for comparison. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the differences caused by the use of different codes in the dynamic analysis and seismic verification of given types of buildings located at code defined different sites. The differences in expressions and some important points for elastic and inelastic spectra defined by the codes are briefly illustrated in tables and figures. Periods, base shears, lateral displacements and interstory drifts for the analyzed buildings located at code defined ground type are comparatively presented.     

A spectral-velocity-based combination-type earthquake intensity measure for super high-rise buildings

A spectral-velocity-based combination-type ground motion intensity measure (IM), which is inspired by the superior sensitivity of spectral velocity to structural response compared with other two spectral quantities, is proposed for super high-rise building structures with the consideration of the characteristics of ground motions and structures themselves. Two super high-rise buildings with typical frame/core-tube/outrigger lateral resisting system and a wide range of structural height (H = 258 m~660 m) are deliberately selected to identify the correlation between the maximum inter-story drift ratio and nineteen IMs developed in recent decade together with the proposed IM, with sixty chosen far-field and near-field pulse-like ground motions. With the suggested optimal number of lower vibration modes and corresponding combination factors, the efficiency, sufficiency and the scaling robustness of the proposed IM is further demonstrated. In addition, the relative sufficiency measures of other IMs with respect to the proposed IM are investigated. The results from the study indicate that, the proposed IM is believed, from the standpoint of efficiency, sufficiency, relative sufficiency measure and scaling robustness, to be a more specialized and desirable tool for super high-rise buildings, either for far-field or near-field ground motions.     

Quantification of the amplitude variability of the ground motion in Argostoli,Greece. Variability of linear and non-linear structural response of a single degree of freedom system.

The term “spatial variability of seismic ground motions” denotes the differences in the amplitude and phase content of seismic motions. The effect of such spatial variability on the structural response is still an open issue. In-situ experiments may be helpful in order to answer the questions regarding both the quantification of the spatial variability of the ground motion within the dimensions of a structure as well as the effect on its dynamic response. The goal of the present study is to quantify the variability of the seismic ground motion accelerations in the shallow sedimentary basin of Argostoli, Greece, and thereafter to identify its effect on the linear and non-linear elasto-plastic response of a single degree of freedom system in terms of spectral displacements. Around 400 earthquakes are used, recorded by the 21-element very dense seismological array deployed in Argostoli with inter-station spacing ranging from 5 to 160 meters. The seismic motion variability, evaluated in terms of spectral accelerations, is found to be significant and to increase with inter-station distance and frequency. Thereafter, the amplitude variability in terms of spectral displacements, which is indeed the linear response of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system with various fundamental periods, is compared with the amplitude variability of a SDOF with non-linear elasto-plastic response. The variability of the maximum top displacement of the linear single degree of freedom system is estimated to be on average 12% with larger variabilities to be observed within two narrow frequency ranges (between 1.5 and 1.7 Hz and between 3 and 4 Hz). Such high variabilities are caused by locally edge-generated diffracted surface waves. The non-linear perfectly elasto-platic structural response of the SDOF system shows that although the variability has the same trends as in the case of linear response, it is almost constantly increased by 5%.