Site characterizations for the Iranian strong motion network

Twenty-six sites of the Iranian strong motion network, having provided numerous records of good quality, were selected for a site effect study with the objective of obtaining a reliable site categorization for later statistical work on Iranian strong motion data. For each site, superficial Vp and Vs profiles were measured with refraction techniques, microtremor recordings were obtained and analysed with the H/V technique and the available three-component accelerograms by the receiver function technique. The aggregation of these results allows the proposition of a four-class categorization based on the H/V spectral ratio of strong ground motions, which demonstrate a satisfactory correlation with the S-wave velocity profile. Iran has a particular geological and meteorological situation compared to other seismic countries such as Japan or California, a mountainous country with dry weather conditions and a low water table in most areas. These conditions result in a relatively small number of sites with low frequency amplification, while many sites exhibit moderate amplifications in the intermediate and high frequency range.     

Analysis of strong earthquake ground motion for prediction of response spectra

Prediction of response spectra for earthquake engineering purposes is considered from a new point of view based on the dislocation theory of earthquakes. It is shown that the traditional scaling of response spectra by the predicted peak acceleration should be limited to the high-frequency end of the spectrum, and that the peak acceleration in the near field is not strongly correlated with earthquake magnitude. The amplitude of the long-period end of response spectrum at source to station distances greater than about 10 source dimensions should be scaled with seismic moment, while for distances less than about one source dimension this amplitude should be proportional to the permanent ground displacement. To reconcile the existing extensive data on seismicity of active regions based on magnitude scale, it is shown that magnitude can be used to determine approximately the seismic moment.     

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.     

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.     

The recording stations of the Italian strong motion network: geological information and site classification

One of the main objectives of the ITACA (ITalian ACcelerometric Archive) strong motion database, promoted by the Italian Department of Civil Protection, was to improve the characterization of the recording sites from a geological and geophysical point of view and to provide their seismic classification according to the seismic norms pertinent to Italy, namely the Eurocode 8 and the National Technical Norms for Constructions. A standard format to summarize the available information for the recording stations was first produced, in terms of a technical report dynamically linked to the database, i.e., some of the relevant information is automatically updated when the corresponding fields of the database are modified. Then, an important activity of collection, qualification and synthesis of available data was carried out, especially for stations that recorded the strongest earthquakes in Italy in the last 40 years, and for which a relevant number of studies have been published. In spite of this activity, among the more than 700 strong motion stations present in the ITACA database, only a limited number of them could be characterized by quantitative information on subsurface soil properties. For this reason, a dual seismic site classification criterion was implemented, either based on the standard V _s,30 scheme, or, in the absence of such information, based on an expert opinion supported by shallow geology maps, mostly at 1:100,000 scale, and when available on the H/V ratios calculated on recordings. Owing to the relevance in the Italian geographic and morphological context, a special care was also given to the topographic classification of stations, based on suitable criteria developed within a GIS environment.     

Q and high-frequency strong motion spectra

Empirical scaling equations for Fourier amplitude spectra of strong ground motion are used to describe A₀ and τ in the assumed (high-frequency) shape of strong motion amplitudes: FS(_φ) = A₀e-^πτφ. The res of computed A₀ and τ with other related estimates of spectral amplitudes; (2) smooth decay of strong motion spectral amplitudes up to φ = 25 Hz, without an abrupt low-pass filtering of high frequecies; and (3) good agreement with other estimates of the regionally specific attenuation of high-frequncy seismic waves.As the recorded strong earthquake shaking in the western United States typically samples only the shallow (10 km) and local (100km) characteristics of wave attenuation, the processed strong motion accelerograms can be used as the most direct means of describing the nature of the high-frequency attenuation of the entire strong motion signal for use in earthquake engineering applications. Seismological body wave, Lg and coda wave estimates of Q sample different volumes of the crust surrounding the station, and involve different paths of the waves. These differences must be carefully documented and understood before the results can be used in earthquake engineering characterization of strong motion amplitudes.     

A study on amplification response of soil ground motion in Shanghai using strong motion records

Introduction A good deal of attention was paid to the amplification response of soil layers under the earthquake waves,especially by the engineering seismologists.     

Neural network estimation of duration of strong ground motion using Japanese earthquake records

The duration of strong motion has a significant influence on the severity of ground shaking. In this work, a combination of average values of four geophysical properties of site (Standard Penetration Test (SPT) blow count, primary wave velocity, shear wave velocity, and density of soil) including hypocentral distance of less than 50 km and magnitudes more than 5.0 from Japanese ground motion records were used for development of neural network model, to estimate duration of strong ground motion. Since majority of strong motion databases provide only average shear wave velocity for site characterization, an attempt has also been made to train the neural network with magnitude, hypocentral distance and average shear wave velocity as three input variables. Results obtained from this study show that the duration of strong motion is mostly dependent on average shear wave velocity rather than other geophysical properties of site.     

Long period Fourier amplitude spectra of strong motion acceleration

The empirical equations for scaling Fourier amplitude spectra in the frequency band from ~0·1 to 25 Hz can be extrapolated to describe the long period strong motion amplitudes. The results of this extrapolation can agree with (1) the seismological and field estimates of permanent ground displacement (near field), and with (2) the independent estimates of seismic moment and the observed frequencies of far field Fourier spectrum amplitudes.     

Site effects by generalized inversion technique using strong motion recordings of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

The generalized inversion of S-wave amplitude spectra from the free-field strong motion recordings of the China National Strong Motion Observation Network System (NSMONS) are used to evaluate the site effects in the Wenchuan area. In this regard, a total of 602 recordings from 96 aftershocks of the Wenchuan earthquake with magnitudes of M3.7-M6.5 were selected as a dataset. These recordings were obtained from 28 stations at a hypocenter distance ranging from 30 km to 150 km. The inversion results have been verified as reliable by comparing the site response at station 62WUD using the Generalized Inversion Technique (GIT) and the Standard Spectral Ratio method (SSR). For all 28 stations, the site predominant frequency F _p and the average site amplification in different frequency bands of 1.0–5.0 Hz, 5.0–10.0 Hz and 1.0–10.0 Hz have been calculated based on the inversion results. Compared with the results from the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method, it shows that the HVSR method can reasonably estimate the site predominant frequency but underestimates the site amplification. The linear fitting between the average site amplification for each frequency band and the V _s20 (the average uppermost-20 m shear wave velocity) shows good correlation. A distance measurement called the asperity distance D _Aspt is proposed to reasonably characterize the source-to-site distance for large earthquakes. Finally, the inversed site response is used to identify the soil nonlinearity in the main shock and aftershocks of Wenchuan earthquake. In ten of the 28 stations analyzed in the main shock, the soil behaved nonlinearly, where the ground motion level is apparently beyond a threshold of PGA > 300 cm/s² or PGV > 20 cm/s, and only one station coded 51SFB has evidence of soil nonlinear behavior in the aftershocks.     

Applying empirical methods in site classification,using response spectral ratio (H/V): A case study on Iranian strong motion network (ISMN)

Shear wave velocity, measured recently at 107 strong motion stations, is a new empirical basis in the applicability investigation of empirical classification techniques. These stations are classified considering Iranian Practice Code criteria (Standard 2800). To check the applicability of empirical methods, three different empirical techniques are applied to re-classify the stations using previously determined site classes. The first method is based only on the determination of peak periods at each station. It is found that the fundamental periods in different site categories are within the ranges proposed by Japanese Road Association. The second one is upon the site classification index (SI), suggested by Zhao et al. In this study, a new site index term is proposed for quantitative site classification using the empirical H/V spectral ratio (here after HVRS) method. It is shown that the results from this scheme are comparable with those obtained by applying the method of Zhao et al. and are more reliable than the results from using only peak periods. A large number of strong motion stations are classified in Iran for more control of proposed SI applicability. The mean response spectral ratio curves for all data of ISMN stations are found to be fairly consistent with those obtained by Zhao et al. The results show the practicability and efficiency of the proposed method in site classification. However, more shear wave measurements and further information, like surface geology, borehole data etc., are still needed to clarify the uncertainties of such empirical schemes.     

基于网络的强震动台网监控平台的设计与实现

文中从基于网络的强震动台网监控平台的设计目标、规划设计、软件实现等方面展开了阐述,并着重介绍了监控平台的设计与实现过程.基于网络的强震动台网监控平台的设计达到了“IP到台站,接口集成,智能监控与管理”的目标.应用实例表明,这套平台具有较强的自动处理功能和较好的监控、管理能力,且稳定可靠.     

场地类别划分与抗震设计反应谱的讨论

介绍了新的抗震设计规范(2001—07—20发布，2002—01—01实施)中场地类别划分和地震影响系数的有关内容，指出其中一些不相协调之处。最后，针对不同的问题建议相应的解决办法。     

Site dependent and spatially varying response spectra

The goal of this study is to provide a stochastic method to investigate the effects of the randomness of soil properties due to their natural spatial variability on the response spectra spatial variation at sites with varying conditions. For this purpose, Monte Carlo Simulations are used to include the variability of both incident ground motion and soil parameters in the response spectra by mean of an appropriate coherency loss function and a site-dependent transfer function, respectively. The approach is built on the assumption of vertical propagation of SH type waves in soil strata with uncertain parameters. The response spectra are obtained by numerical integration of the governing equation of a single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF) system under non-stationary site-dependent and spatially varying ground motion accelerations simulated with non-uniform spectral densities and coherency loss functions. Numerical examples showed that randomness of soil properties significantly affects the amplitudes of the response spectra, indicating that as the heterogeneity induced by the randomness of the parameters of the medium increases, the spectral ordinates attenuate.     

基于CDMA1X/GPRS网络采用VPN技术组建强地震观测网络系统

详细介绍了采用CDMA1X/GPRS网络组建天津市强地震观测VPN网络的技术流程与要点。通过该网络的组建,使天津强地震观测网络实现了自动监控、数据自动汇集、参数自动获取等功能,提高了天津强地震观测的自动化水平和管理水平,为天津市的震后灾害快速评估、应急及快速救援提供了技术保障,充分发挥了强地震观测在天津市防震减灾事业中的作用。     

地震动加速度反应谱竖向分量与水平分量的比值

本文采用水平向444条,竖向228条严格按我国抗震设计规范划分场地条件的实际强震记录,计算了不同情况下加速度反应谱竖向分量与水平分量的比值(V／H)的平均值,结果表明：(1)V／H随周期变化明显。在短周期,有1个1．0左右的峰值,在周期0．2～1．0间有1个0．4左右的低谷,在2s以后的长周期,V／H趋近1个0．6左右的常数。(2)V／H值与震中距也有很大关系,在震源附近竖向反应谱与水平向反应谱很接近,V／H均值在周期长于2s时达到了0．9。(3)它与场地条件也有很大关系,短周期处,Ⅰ类场地V／H峰值为0．7,Ⅱ、Ⅲ类场地V／H峰值为1．1,长周期处则随场地类别由Ⅰ,Ⅱ到Ⅲ类,V／H由大到小。建议抗震设计规范修订时应考虑对竖向反应谱的规定予以修正,文中给出了建议方案。     

Determination of noise spectra from strong motion data recorded in Greece

A large number of strong ground motions inGreece have been recorded by analogaccelerographs. The processing of analogstrong motion recordings and conversion toa digital form introduces noise in thesignal, due to the digitization andprocessing whichsignificantly affects the record. In thepresent paper a unified processing anddetermination of digitization andprocessing noise for the Greek strongmotion records is presented. Moreover,appropriate relations are proposed for thelower cut-off frequency with respect tothe epicentral distance and earthquakemagnitude for record filtering.     

地震动滞回能量谱衰减规律研究

本文选用美国西部California州15次较大地震中的266条强地震动记录,利用衰减关系建立了滞回能量谱,分析了场地条件、延性系数、震级及距离等参数对滞回能量谱的影响。研究发现,场地条件对滞回能量谱影响很大,随着场地变软,滞回能量谱变大,与A B类场地相比,C类场地的滞回能量谱平均要高出70％左右,D类场地则要高出170％左右。随着延性系数的增大,滞回能量谱有增大的趋势,尤其是当延性系数由2变到4或6时更为明显,但当延性系数增加到一定程度时,滞回能量谱的差别不大,延性系数为4和6时的滞回能量谱差别不大,甚至在周期较大时,延性系数为6的滞回能量谱反而小于延性系数为4时的滞回能量谱。另外,研究结果表明,大的震级和小的距离对结构产生比较大的滞回能量需求。利用本文结果,可以估计未来地震中结构物所遭受滞回能量的大小。     

Equivalent stationary motion and average response spectra

This study not only attempts to justify an equivalent stationary motion model, but also endeavours to illustrate its potentials as an attractive analysis tool. Using 38 ground accelerations recorded on rock sites as data base, this study first demonstrates that the equivalent stationary motions do give average response spectra compatible with real records. This study also shows that through the equivalent stationary model, a set of motions may be defined by specifying the joint distributions of the model parameters. Finally, by converting a relationship between earthquake magnitude and liquefaction potentials of ground motions, this study has derived normalized magnitude-dependent response spectra for rock sites.     

Characteristics of strong ground motion for typical Australian intra-plate earthquakes and their relationship with the recommended response spectra

Global epicentre maps show that the majority of earthquakes are inter-plate, although moderate to large earthquakes do occur intra-plate, i.e. within the plates. The seismicity of the Australian continent is typical of intra-plate environments and a magnitude M_L 6 earthquake has an average return period of about 5 years. Recordings of Australian intra-plate earthquakes are investigated here to characterise their frequency content, peak acceleration and duration.Due to lack of quality strong motion records of large intra-plate earthquakes at short distances, synthetic seismograms are commonly used for testing structural behaviour. An empirical Green's Function method (Geophys. Res. Lett., 5 (1978), 1–4; Proceedings of the Third International Microzonation Conference, Seattle, USA, vol. 1, (1982), pp. 447–458.) is chosen to simulate a large earthquake by summation in time of a number of smaller earthquakes or sub-events, each given a slightly different origin time to represent more realistically the propagation of a rupture along an assumed fault plane. In the first instance, recordings on rock of the magnitude M_L 2.3 aftershock of the 29 December 1989 Newcastle earthquake were used as sub-events to simulate the main shock of magnitude M_L 5.6. Validation studies for events recorded elsewhere in Australia are also considered.The response spectra of such synthetic events will be compared with the recommended spectra developed empirically from a statistical analysis of strong motion data for magnitude 5.4–6.5 intra-plate earthquakes recorded in other parts of the world and normalised to a peak ground velocity of 50 mm/s which is typical for a return period of 500 years in Australia (Australasian Structural Engineering Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, (1998), pp. 439–444.). Preliminary results from this comparison with the response spectra recommended for the Building Code of Australia show that the synthetic waveforms produced by this method are realistic and can be used to represent ground motion during typical Australian intra-plate earthquakes.