An evolutionary ground motion model for earthquake analysis of structures in zones with little history

Time history methods to perform structural dynamic analysis for vulnerability, seismic risk and structural performance studies are frequent in all kinds of projects. To apply these methods it is necessary to have earthquake acceleration records consistent with the seismic characteristics of the zone where the structure or facilities will be constructed. In regions where seismic activity is important but recorded history is scarce, the simulation of acceleration records becomes necessary.In the present work, a methodology to simulate artificial acceleration records is presented. This methodology is based on the theory of non-stationary random processes with evolutive power spectral density function. The random process model proposed uses the definition of the Boore power spectral density function, in order to take into account the seismic mechanism of the zone. The zone of Mendoza, in the province of Cuyo in Argentina close to the border with Chile, was selected to make applications of the theory. This zone was selected because it has important seismic activity but the information about this activity is scarce. To evaluate the performance of the method some response and seismic variables such as response spectra, Arias evolutionary intensity, and power spectra were computed. The results were compared with actual earthquake data obtained in the region.