Validation of Near-Fault Ground Motion Simulations With Directivity Pulses for Use in Engineering Applications

Abstract eng:
Due to the scarcity of recorded data for damaging near-fault earthquake ground motions with forward directivity pulses, engineers need simulations of such motions. However, before simulations can be used with confidence in engineering practice, they must be independently validated. In this paper, we use the stochastic simulation model of Dabaghi and Der Kiureghian [1] to generate synthetic near-fault pulse-like ground motions for recordings from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. We demonstrate how these simulations can be validated for engineering applications by comparing the fit of simulated to recorded elastic response spectra, using a newly proposed similarity index (SI). We then show how the simulations can be improved to obtain a better similarity index. The simulation model includes predictive equations for each model parameter in terms of easily accessible input variables for design such as earthquake magnitude, distance, and site specifications. We first use these predictive equations to estimate the model parameters, which are based on the global earthquake database used by Dabaghi and Der Kiureghian [1], to generate our first set of simulations. Then, we use estimates of site-specific model parameters to generate a second set of simulations and demonstrate the improvements in the SI. Finally, we improve the site-specific parameters by also considering the fit of simulations in terms of the response spectrum, which was not directly considered in [1], and generate a third set of simulations. The second and third sets of simulations can be used for site-specific analyses, where more detailed information is available at a site and more accurate ground motion simulations are required.

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