A study of design spectra based on attenuation relationship of ground motion

In recent years, more and more studies are focused on the performance in seismic design instead of the strength of structures. People have realized that the structure deformation (displacement) can describe the damage more properly and directly than the strength (force). The displacement design spectra need to be constructed within more wide range of the period and the damping for the displacement-based seismic design.     

A note on the useable dynamic range of accelerographs recording translation

Since the late 1970s, the dynamic range and resolution of strong motion digital recorders have leaped from 65 to 135 dB, opening new possibilities for advanced data processing and interpretation. One of these new possibilities is the calculation of permanent displacement of the ground or of structures, associated with faulting or with non-linear response. Proposals on how permanent displacements could be recovered from recorded strong motion have been published since 1976. The analysis in this paper concludes that permanent displacements of the ground and of structures in the near-field can be calculated provided all six components of strong motion (three translations and three rotations) have been recorded, and the records are corrected for transducer rotation, misalignment and cross-axis sensitivity.     

Evolution of accelerographs, data processing, strong motion arrays and amplitude and spatial resolution in recording strong earthquake motion

This paper presents a review of the advances in strong motion recording since the early 1930s, based mostly on the experiences in the United States. A particular emphasis is placed on the amplitude and spatial resolution of recording, which both must be ‘adequate’ to capture the nature of strong earthquake ground motion and response of structures. The first strong motion accelerographs had optical recording system, dynamic range of about 50 dB and useful life longer than 30 years. Digital strong motion accelerographs started to become available in the late 1970s. Their dynamic range has been increasing progressively, and at present is about 135 dB. Most models have had useful life shorter than 5–10 years. One benefit from a high dynamic range is early trigger and anticipated ability to compute permanent displacements. Another benefit is higher sensitivity and hence a possibility to record smaller amplitude motions (aftershocks, smaller local earthquakes and distant large earthquakes), which would augment significantly the strong motion databases. The present trend of upgrading existing and adding new stations with high dynamic range accelerographs has lead to deployment of relatively small number of new stations (the new high dynamic range digital instruments are 2–3 times more expensive than the old analog instruments or new digital instruments with dynamic range of 60 dB or less). Consequently, the spatial resolution of recording, both of ground motion and structural response, has increased only slowly during the past 20 years, by at most a factor of two. A major (and necessary) future increase in the spatial resolution of recording will require orders of magnitude larger funding, for purchase of new instruments, their maintenance, and for data retrieval, processing, management and dissemination. This will become possible only with an order of magnitude cheaper and ‘maintenance-free’ strong motion accelerographs. In view of the rapid growth of computer technology this does not seem to be (and should not be) out of our reach.     

Inelastic buildings with tuned mass dampers under moderate ground motions from distant earthquakes

The effectiveness of tuned mass dampers (TMD) in vibration control of buildings was investigated under moderate ground shaking caused by long‐distance earthquakes with frequency contents resembling the 1985 Mexico City (SCT) or the 1995 Bangkok ground motion. The elastic–perfectly plastic material behaviour was assumed for the main structure, with linear TMDs employed by virtue of their simplicity and robustness. The accumulated hysteretic energy dissipation affected by TMD was examined, and the ratio of the hysteretic energy absorption in the structure with TMD to that without it is proposed to be used, in conjunction with the peak displacement ratio, as a supplementary TMD performance index since it gives an indication of the accumulated damage induced in the inelastic structures. For the ground motions considered, TMD would be effective in reducing the hysteretic energy absorption demand in the critical storeys for buildings in the 1.8–2.8 s range. The consequence is reduction in damage of the buildings which would otherwise suffer heavy damage in the absence of TMD, resulting in economical restorability in the damage control limit state. This is of practical significance in view of the current trend toward performance‐based design. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of earthquake ground motions on fragility curves of highway bridge piers based on numerical simulation

Fragility curves express the probability of structural damage due to earthquakes as a function of ground motion indices, e.g., PGA, PGV. Based on the actual damage data of highway bridges from the 1995 Hyogoken‐Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake, a set of empirical fragility curves was constructed. However, the type of structure, structural performance (static and dynamic) and variation of input ground motion were not considered to construct the empirical fragility curves. In this study, an analytical approach was adopted to construct fragility curves for highway bridge piers of specific bridges. A typical bridge structure was considered and its piers were designed according to the seismic design codes in Japan. Using the strong motion records from Japan and the United States, non‐linear dynamic response analyses were performed, and the damage indices for the bridge piers were obtained. Using the damage indices and ground motion indices, fragility curves for the bridge piers were constructed assuming a lognormal distribution. The analytical fragility curves were compared with the empirical ones. The proposed approach may be used in constructing the fragility curves for highway bridge structures. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of Clouds on UV Irradiance at Ground Level and Backscattered Exittance

The influence of various cloud parameters and the interactions with the ground albedo and the solar zenith angle have been studied by means of model simulations. The radiative transfer model suitable for a cloudy atmosphere as well as for a clear atmosphere has been developed on the basis of the Discrete Ordinate Method. This study leads to a general understanding for cloudy atmospheres: in the presence of a uniform cloud, the cloud scattering is dominant to molecular and aerosol scattering, and it is also wavelength-independent; the ratio of transmitted irradiance in a cloudy atmosphere to that in the background clear atmosphere is independent of cloud height and solar zenith angle. That’s to say, the radiation downwelling out of a cloud is quite isotropic; it decreases approximately exponentially with the cloud optical depth at a rate related to the ground albedo; the reflected irradiance at the top of the atmosphere is dependent on cloud optical depth as well as on solar zenith angle, but not on ground albedo for clouds of not very thin optical depth.     

秦山核电站厂址地震动加速度时程预测研究

本文研究了建立设计地震震源模型和用理论地震学方法预测基岩场地震震加速度的技术途径，预测了四相设计地震事件在秦山核电站厂址的加速度时程和反应谱，文中根据对地质和历史地震资料的研究，确定不同性质的设计地震事件，建立设计地震震源和工作区介质的确定性模型，针对未来地震的不可完全预见性，以及对地球介质和震源性质现有认识的局限性，文中发展了确定性和随机性组合的综合分析方法，在用确定的介质模型和设计震源计算地震     

逐步带逼近法在热带所旋路径预报中的应用

通过对逐步逼近法１９９５年试验情况与国内外预报台的综合预报以及与国内一些客观预报方法的比较分析，总结出该方法对移动路径明显转折的热带气旋有较好的预报能力，４８小时平均误差达到３００ｋｍ以内，特别是当热带气旋的移速发生明显变化时，该方法较之其它客观方法有明显的优越性。     

青藏块体北缘跨断层测量资料宏观分析

本文在系统整理青藏块体北缘跨断层测量资料的基础上，进行了形变类型的划分，探讨了不同类型形变所反映的断层运动性能。