Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Journal of Earthquake Engineering
Journal of Earthquake Engineering
To cite this article: JULIAN J. BOMMER & ANA BEATRIZ ACEVEDO (2004) THE USE OF REAL EARTHQUAKE ACCELEROGRAMS AS
INPUT TO DYNAMIC ANALYSIS, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 8:S1, 43-91, DOI: 10.1080/13632460409350521
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the
publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations
or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any
opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the
views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be
independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses,
actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever
caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Journal of Earthquake Engineering,
Vol. 8, Special Issue 1 (2004) 43-91
@ Imperial College Press
www.icpress.co.uk
@ Imperial College Press
JULIAN J. BOPVIMER
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
1. Introduction
For earthquake-resistant design and for seismic assessment of existing structures,
the earthquake-induced ground shaking is generally represented in the form of a
response spectrum of acceleration or displacement. The spectrum used as input to
equivalent lateral force or spectral modal methods of analysis is usually obtained by
scaling an elastic spectrum by factors that account for, amongst other phenomena,
the influence of inelastic structural response. There are, however, situations in which
the simulation of structural response using a scaled elastic response spectrum is not
considered appropriate, and N l y dynamic analysis is required. These situations may
include the following: buildings designed foi a high degree of ductility; structures
with configuration in plan or elevation that is highly irregular; structures for which
higher modes are likely to be excited; critical structures, the failure of which would
cause unacceptable harm or disruption; structures with special features, such as
base isolation. Faced with these special situations, the engineer will generally have
to employ time-history analysis, for which the requirements are an appropriate non-
linear model for the structure and a suitable suite of accelerogams to represent the
seismic excitation.
A workshop on improving the characterisation of earthquake ground motion
held in 1997 [ATC, 19991 reflected the importance of the issue of defining accelero-
grams for engineering design in its first conclusion, which recommended to "develop
guidelines for generating and selecting time histories that can be used by the prac-
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
tising engineer 272 seismic analysis and design of facilities". Nonetheless, there is
relatively little published technical literature on the subject of selecting and scaling
real strong-motion records for design, and this paper therefore attempts to present
the issues involved and offer some insights as well as some guidance for engineers.
There are three basic options available to the engineer in terms of obtaining
acceleration time-series. The first is to use artificial spectrurn-compatible accelero-
grams generated using programs such as SIMQKE [Gasparini and Vanmarcke,
19791. The approach employed in SIMQKE is to generate a power spectral den-
sity function &om the smoothed response spectrum, and then to derive sinusoidal
signals having random phase angles and amplitudes. The sinusoidal mot ions are
then summed and an iterative procedure can be invoked to improve the match with
the target response spectrum, by calculating the ratio between the target and actual
response ordinates at selected hequencies; the power spectral density function is
then adjusted by: the square of this ratio, and a new motion generated.
The attraction of such an approach is obvious because it is possible to obtain ac-
celeration time-series that are almost completely compatible with the elastic design
spectrum (Fig. I), which in some cases will be the only information available to the
design engineer regarding the nature of the ground motions to be considered. How-
ever, it is now widely accepted that the use of such artificial records, particularly f&
non-linear analyses, is problematic. The basic problem with spectrum-compatible
artificial records is that they generally have an excessive number of cycles of strong
motion and consequently they possess unreasonably high energy content. Here it
is necessary to discuss terminology, since the adjective "artificial" is also applied
(sometimes with the additional qualifier of "intelligent7') to the outcome of applying
selective adjustments to real accelerograms, using techniques that are discussed in
Sec. 4.2. In this paper, the term "artificial" is used exclusively for records such as
those shown in Fig. 1. These types of records are not considered to be suitable for
use in non-linear analyses. In addition to the problems associated with how these
artificial records are generated, there can also be difficulties that arise from match-
ing the acceleration time-series to the entire elastic design spectrum. The latter
will generally be a uniform hazard spectrum (UHS), including in seismic design
codes, obtained from probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA), and there-
fore enveloping the ground motions from several seismic sources [e-g. Reiter, 1990;
The Use of Real Earthquake Acceierugrams 45
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
Period (seconds)
Time (seconds)
Fig. 1. Artificial accelerograms generated to match the S 1 soil category elastic response spectrum
from the French seismic design code; the uppermost pIot compares the average ordinates of the
three spectra with the code spectrum.
46 J . J. Bommer & A. B. Acevedo
Bommer et al., 20001. Naeim and Lew (19951 assert that: "To generate an accelera-
tion time-history t o be compatible to a PSHA-generated design spectrum is neither
reasonable nor realistid'. Certainly it is the case that if the UHS is strongly influ-
enced by more than one source of seismicity, for example by small, local earthquakes
and by distant, large magnitude events, spectrum-compatible artificial records will
tend to be particularly unrealistic. .
release, although the latter are still under development. Programs for some of the
many methods of ground-motion generation that have been developed [e.g. Zeng et
aL, 1994; Beresnev and Atkinson, 1998; Boore, 20031 are freely available, but their
application, in terms of defining the many parameters required to characterise the
earthquake source, will generally require the engineer to engage the services of
specialist consultant in engineering seismology. The determination of the source
parameters for previous earthquakes invariably carries a high degree of uncertainty,
and the specification of these parameters - to which the resulting ground motions
can be highly sensitive - for future earthquake scenarios can involve a significant
degree of expert judgement.
The third category of records is real accelerograms recorded during earthquakes,
which by definition are free from the problems associated with artificial spectrum-
compatible records. Real strong-motion records are now easily accessible in large
numbers and their retrieval and manipulation is relatively straightforward, whence
the design engineer will often be able to prepare a suite of records without the ser-
vices of an engineering seismologist. This paper provides an overview of the issues
involved in preparing suites of real records for use in dynamic analyses, and exam-
ines different procedures for the selecting and scaling of the records. The following
section provides an overview of the sources from which strong-motion data are now
available, including some assessment of the coverage of different earthquake scenar-
ios and the ease with which each source allows the user to perform searches. The
two sections that follow deal with the issues of how records are selected and how
they can be scaled to match, in some specified sense, the elastic design spectrum.
The penultimate section of the paper then explores all of these issues through two
approximately compatible searches, one using an earthquake scenario and the other
using direct matching to a code spectrum, and through the application of differ-
ent selection and scaling procedures to the suites of accelerograms obtained from
each search. The paper closes with simple guidelines for the selection and scaling
of real strong-motion records, and discusses how these might be incorporated into
seismic design codes.
Before closing this section, mention should be made of synthetic accelerograms
generated using empirical Green's functions, which are effectively a hybrid of the
second and third categories of acceleration time-series.
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelerograrns 47
to 1994 [Row, 19961. Although the NGDC databank makes a very large number of
records available to users, the parameters in the database have not been uniformly
re-evaluated and this limits its use as a selection tool: only epicentral distances are
given for the records and various magnitudes are reported, with a quarter of the
earthquakes having either a magnitude of zero (presumably implying no value is
available) or a value on an unspecified scale.
In this respect, some smaller collections of data may be of greater use simply
because they provide more complete and more uniformly determined source, path
and site parameters for the accelerograms. Work has been ongoing for many years to
determine uniform parameters associated with strong-motion records from Europe
and the Middle East [Ambraseys and Bommer, 1990,1991] and in 2000 a CD-ROM
of European Strong-Motion Data was issued and distributed as a result of a Eu-
ropean Union-funded project [Ambraseys et al., 2000). The CD-ROM includes just
over 1000 accelerograms from more than 400 earthquakes, with a database of associ-
ated parameters including uniformly calculated Joyner-Boore distances [Abraharn-
son and Shedlock, 19971 for nearly all records fkom earthquakes of magnitude 6 or
greater; for smaller earthquakes, generally only epicentral distance is provided, but
for such events the two measures are comparable. The style-of-faulting is known for
more than half of the records, and the site classification for more than 80% of the
records, although the reliability of the information on which the latter is based is
highly variable. The CD-ROM allows the user to search records in terms of different
combinations of parameters such as magnitude, &tame and site classification, and
peak ground acceleration (PGA) can also be used as a search parameter. Another
useful collection, in which the data (exclusively from soft rock and stiff soil sites in
western US) has effectively been pre-searched to be presented in magnit ude-distance
bins, is available on the CD-ROMs accompanying NUREG/ CR-6728 [McGuire
et aL, 20011.
networks maintain their own web sites, in some cases allowing users to download
digitised records. An excellent Internet site for obtaining Japanese strong-motion
data is the K- Net site at http://www.k-net. bosaz.go.jp/k-net/zndex-en.shtml. There
are also a number of sites that provide data from several networks, although these
vary in the degree of access that they actually provide to the digital strong-motion
records. The NGDC site (http://wwzu.ngd~.noaa.~ov) allows users to search the
database mentioned in the previous subsection, but the records can only be o b
tained korn the CD-ROM collection. The databank of accelerograrns from Eu-
rope and the Middle East, containing almost three times as many records as
were available on the CD-ROM described above, can now be searched via the In-
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
ternet Site for European Strong-Motion Data (ISESD) launched in March 2002
(http://www.isesd. cv. ic. ac.uk) [Ambraseys et al., 20031. Figure 2 shows the distri-
bution of the strong-motion records in the European Internet site with respect to
magnitude, distance and site classification; it can be appreciated that although the
databank is extensive, the majority of the records actually correspond to earth-
quakes that are unlikely to be of engineering significance, given that the threshold
magnitude considered worthy of consideration for engineering purposes is generally
taken to be about 5.
Two other important websites for accessing strong-motion data are COSMOS
and PEER. The COShlOS website (http://db.cosmos-eq. org) contains a databank
of more than 4000 freely available records &om around the world, 40% of which are
from western US, 20% fiom Japan and about 18% from New Zealand, the main
objective of the website being to make as many records as possible available to
users [Stepp, 20001. Simple searches can be performed in terms of ranges of mag-
nitude, distance and PGA, as well as by region. Moment magnitudes are provided
for almost half of the earthquakes in the database; distances can be searched as
hypocentral or distance from the fault rupture, but the latter is provided for a
much smaller proportion of the data. Advanced searches can be performed in terms
of several other parameters, including mechanism, rake angle, site geology, peak
ground velocity (PGV), and spectral ordinates at a few response periods, although
these parameters are not provided for all records.
The PEER databank (http://peer. berkeley. edu/smcat) includes 1557 records
from 143 earthquakes in tectonically active regions, for which the time- histories
and response spectra for different damping ratios can be downloaded. The distribu-
tion of the records in the PEER databank with respect to magnitude, distance and
site classification is shown in Fig. 3. The PEER database reports &Iw, Ms and ML
for earthquakes, with 90%, 85% and 78% of the records having a value on each of
the scales, respectively. Distances are reported using three different metrics, these
being the closest distance to the fault rupture, hypocentral distance and the Joyner-
Boore distance. The proportions of the records for which each distance is given are
80% for &,, 15% for Rhypand 48% for Rjb (see Abrahamson and Shedlock [I9971
for distance definitions). The site geology at the recording stations is classified ac-
cording to two different schemes, one attributed to the USGS, using four classes
50 J+ J . Bornmer & A . B. Aceuedo
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
O urn
omjA a A 1 A
o
rock
stiff soil
0 alluvium
unknown
Distance (km)
Fig. 2. Distribution of European strong-motion databank with respect to magnitude, source-te
site distance, and site classification.
whose limits are defined by Vs,30 values of 750, 360, and 180 m/s, which are the
values used by Boore et al. [1997] based on the NEHRP classification scheme, and
the other being either the Geomatrix scheme or the CWB classification for stations
in Taiwan; the Geomatrix scheme includes five categories, the stiffest with shear
wave velocities above 600 m/s, the softest those with less than 150 m/s [Abraham-
son and Silva, 19971. 65% of the records are classified in terms of USGS scheme,
and 84% in terms of the Geomatrix or CWB schemes.
The PEER database lists some earthquakes for which t h e digitised records are
not actually available at the site, most of these corresponding to European events.
The Use of Real Earthquake A c c e i e r o g m 51
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
intermediate
+ unknown
Distance (km)
Fig. 3. . Distribution of f EER strong-motion databank with respect to magnitude, source-tesite
distance, and site classification. Magnitude is assigned according to the following order of priority:
M w , M,, M L ,and distances as RrUp, Rjb, Rhyp. Rock sites are those classified as USGS or
Geomatrix class A or CWB class 1, intermediate sites are class B or C or 2 in the CWB scheme,
and others are soft.
The COSMOS site also includes very few accelerograrns from Europe, which makes
the ISESD a useful complement to the COSMOS and PEER sites.
Using the PEER database, searches can be performed in terms of magnitude,
distance, site classification, rupture mechanism, PGA, PGV and peak ground dis-
placement (PGD) , or alternatively in terms of the maximum spectral acceleration
in a user-specified period range. In terms of search capabilities, provided one has
access to a large databank, the optimum approach - as illustrated in Sec. 5 -
can be to use both seismological and response spectral criteria simultaneously. In
a follow-up to the ISESD website, a new CD-ROM is to be distributed in early
2004, which will allow users to execute searches using a wide range of possible
combinations of parameters related to the characteristics of the earthquake source,
the source-to-site path, and the site itself, as well as in terms of strong-motion
parameters, including response spectral ordinates [Ambraseys et al., 20041.
A final point worthy of note with regard to the strong-motion records that can
be obtained either from CD-ROM collections or downloaded from Internet sites, is
with respect to the processing applied to the signals. The problems associated with
distortion of high-frequency cornponenk of motion due to instrument response, and
more importantly with baseline errors and long-period noise in digitised analogue
strongmotion recordings, are well known [Trifunac et al., 1973; Hudson, 19791.
32 J. J. Bommer 13A. B. Acevedo
The problems are reduced with digitally recorded accelerograms, but by no means
eliminated [e.g. Boore e t a/., 20021. For any application that requires &placement
time-series, such as asynchronous analysis of bridges, and the analysis of long-
period structures, the issues of baselme errors and long-period noise can become
particularly sigdicant. The COSMOS site offers records as contributed by net-
work operators, in uncorrected and/or corrected format, but often no details are
provided of the correction procedures applied. Important exceptions to this are
records supplied by the USGS and CSMIP (Californian StrongMotion Instrumen-
tation Program), for which processing details are contained in the record headers.
Nearly all records on the ISESD site are available in both uncorrected and cor-
rected formats, except for those cases where only corrected records were provided
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
by the network operators. The remaining records have all been corrected by the
subtraction of a linear baseline and band-passed filtered using an elliptical filter
[Sunder and Connor, 19821 with cut-off kequencies of 0.25 and 25 Hz; no instru-
ment correction has been applied. Where uncorrected records are available, users
may apply their own preferred correction procedures. The accelerograrns available
at the PEER web site are all in corrected format, with most of the records having
been individually processed by Dr. Walter Silva, using a causal Butterworth filter,
with cut-off frequencies based on inspection of the Fourier amplitude spectrum and
the integrated displacement time-series, and a correction for instrument response.
For applications where long-period response and ground displacements are impor-
tant, the PEER records are likely to be an attractive choice since there is some
degree of confidence in the displacement records (reflected in the fact that PGD
is offered as a search parameter), which may not be true for the corrected records
from the COSMOS and ISESD sites.
Synthetics 4
Fig. 4. Overview of the options available for selecting accelerograms to be used in engineering
analysis and design.
usually focused on compatibility with the response spectrum rather than seismolog-
ical parameters, for the simple reason that the information on seismic source zones
and activity rates that underlie zonation maps is not presented and only the uni-
form hazard spectrum (UHS) is given. In current codes, earthquakes are effectively
invisible and for this reason the engineer using the code will not easily be able to
identify scenario earthquakes. This gives rise to the use of generally rather vague
specifications such as that encountered in the 1995 Greek seismic code, which states
that the selected records "must be representative of the ground motion at the site
and must be recorded at a consistent sowce-site distance7'.An important exception
to the general shortcomings vis-&vis seismic design codes is represented by the
dashed arrow in Fig. 4, which corresponds to the unique situation in the United
States. Since the zonation map and uniform hazard spectrum in IBC 2000 are
closely based on the USGS hazard maps, users can obtain disaggregations - and
even suites of hazard-consistent stochastically generated acceleration time-series -
from the USGS website s t http://eqint.cr.usgs.gov/eq/htmI/deugginZ.
Where specific criteria for selecting records are provided in seismic codes, they
are generally based on the ordinates of the elastic design spectrum, although some,
notably the Spanish code, only specify a match with PGA. Some codes do not spec-
ify the relationship between the selected records and the elastic design spectrum,
but rather specify that the base shear obtained from dynamic analysis should not
be lower than a certain proportion - usually between 0.7 and 0.9 - of that ob-
tained using the equivalent lateral force method, which does not actually help the
engineer in making the initial selection of records.
Most of the codes that give some guidance on the preparation of suites of accel-
eration time-series to be used as input to dynamic analyses specify conditions that
the records must meet with respect to the ordinates of the elastic design spectrum.
These matching criteria are discussed in Sec. 4.1. In order to implement searches
that will produce records likely to meet the spectral matching criteria, or at least to
do so with a minimum of manipulation of the records, it is useful to have a tool
that allows records to be searched on the basis of the spectral ordinates. Such
a tool is included in the new European strong-motion data CD-ROM discussed
previously [Ambraseys et al., 20041, which allows records to be searched by match-
ing the spectral shape to the shape of the design spectrum. The search is based on
.
The Use of Real Eadhquake Accelemgrams 55
the average root-mean-square deviation of the observed spectrum from the target
design spectrum:
-SA,(~.))~ 1
N PGA,
where N is the number of periods at which the spectral shape is specified, SA, (Ti)
is the spectral acceleration from the record at period T,, SA,(Ti) is the target
spectral acceleration at the same period; PGA, and PGA, are the peak ground
acceleration of the record and the zero-period anchor point of the target spectrum,
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
respectively. The smaller the value of D,,, the closer the match between the shape
of the record and target spectrum; the value specified will depend on the extent of
the databank being accessed and the number of records required. Smaller values
of D,,, can be specified if the spectral matching is being done at short rather
than longer spectral response periods. Making searches on a database of about
7000 accelerograms held in the Imperial College London strong-motion archive,
it was found that to return less than about 30 accelerogams, values of D,,, of
the order of 0.15 were needed for matching ordinates in the period range of 0.4-
0.8 second, whereas values as low as 0.06-0.07 could be used for matching the
spectral ordinates from 0.1 to 0.3 second [Bommer et ul., 2003al. By simultaneously
specifying an acceptable match with the design PGA, the search then matches the
record and target spectrum in the specified period range. This procedure is superior
to matching on the basis of spectrum intensities (area below the response spectrum)
in the specified period range, because a good match in that case could easily be
obtained with the record having ordinates significantly above the target spectrum
at one period and significantly below at another. The procedure proposed effectively
limits the maximum deviation of individual peaks or troughs on the spectrum from
the target ordinates.
The most serious limitation with any selection procedure based solely on the
ordinates of the elastic spectrum is that the records obtained can have very different
durations. If the starting point for the selection is a seismic design code, in which the
earthquake actions are represented by an elastic response spectrum of acceleration,
the duration of the design ground motions will generally not be specified. Amongst
the 33 seismic design codes reviewed by Bommer and Ruggeri [2002], only six
specify duration criteria, and only two of these - the codes of France and Turkey
- actually specify how the duration is to be measured, an important issue given
that there are more than 30 different definitions of strong-motion duration in the
technical literature [Bommer and Martinez-Pereira, 1999, 20001. This problem is
not easily overcome because no code currently includes a map of hazard in terms
of duration of shaking and without knowledge of earthquake magnitude, it is very
difficult to estimate this parameter. The absence of suitable criteria can also lead to
unrealistic specifications. One code that provides a great deal of information about
the criteria that the records should fulfil is the 1990 French code, although these are
so demanding that it is almost impossible to obtain realistic ground motions that
satisfy them; the artificial accelerograms in Fig. 1 were generated to satisfy these
requirements, but no real accelerograms could be found-that also met the criteria.
One criterion in the French code that makes it so difficult to obtain compatible real
a
records is the specification of minimum duration of 20 seconds for real records.
The 1988 Iranian seismic design code makes the selection of input accelero-
grams for dynamic analysis very easy, specifying use of the Naghan record of the
1977 Ardal (Ms6) earthquake and the Tabas record of the 1978 Tabas (fils7.3)
earthquake, both recorded within 5 km of the seismic source and with PGA values
in excess of 0.6 g and 1.0 g respectively. Although very simplistic - since no con-
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
sideration is given as to whether such severe motions could be generated at the site
under consideration - this approach could usefully be adapted by suites of suitable
records being specified in codes for different hazard zones and site categories, as
discussed later.
the selected records will generally need to be scaled or adjusted to match the design
spectrum, as discussed in the next section.
Clearly, if a search is carried out in terms of an exact match with the design
scenario, for example a normal-faulting earthquake of magnitude M, 6 -4 recorded
at 1 2 km on a site with a V.,J()of 470 m/s, it is very unlikely to yield any records.
Therefore, the search must be performed with less restrictive criteria, and for this
reason it is important to decide which parameters should be included in the search
(apart fiom the tectonic criteria discussed earlier), and for each parameter how
much tolerance should be allowed in the degree of matching between the record
and the scenario.
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
The second parameter that must be included in defining the search window is
distance. Figure 6 shows normalised spectral shapes, using the same attenuation
equations as in Fig. 5, constructed from median values predicted for rock sites
located at 5, 20 and 50 km from a magnitude 7 earthquake. The spectral shape
appears to be much less sensitive to distance than to magnitude; if the ratios of
the ordinates for 5 and 50 km were calculated from each of the equations, the
average ratio calculated from the four values would be almost invariant with period
(Fig. 7).
Campbell (1997)
I . . . . ! . . . . I . . . .
Krinitzsky and Chang [19?7] proposed that if scaling factors of 4 or more needed
to be applied to accelerograms, then the records should be rejected, although no
justification was given for this assertion. Subsequently Vanmarcke [1979] proposed
reduction of the limits on scaling to a factor of 2 for liquefaction analysis, although
the limit of 4 was upheld for linear elastic systems. Vanmarcke [I9791 based his con-
clusions on a study of inelastic spectra and of correlations amongst different strong-
motion parameters, using a dat aset of 70 accelerograms. The dataset only included
12 accelerograms that had horizontal peak accelerations of at least 0.2 g and 41 of
the accelerograms had PGA values below 0.1 g. Despite the limitations of the data
and the analyses underlying the conclusions, the recommendations from these two
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
I
Period (seconds) Period (seconds)
Fig. 6 . Response spectral shapes (normalised to the ordinate at 0.2 s) for rock sites at 5 , 20
and 50 km from an earthquake of magnitude 7 using the median values obtained from the fol-
lowing attenuation equations ( clockwise from t o p left) : Ambraseys et al. [l996], Campbell [l997],
Abrahamson and Silva [I9971 and Boore et al. [1997].
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
-0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Period (seconds)
Fig. 7. Ratios of spectral ordinates for a magnitude 7 earthquake at 5 and 50 km from the
earthquake source, calculated from t h e median spectra shown in Fig. 6 . The mean of the four
ratios shows very little variation with period.
EC8) either side of the classification of the site under consideration. This approach
is far from ideal and it is not intended to discount the vital importance of site effects
in ground-motion estimation, but it reflects a pragmatic attitude towards the data
about site geology and site response generally available.
of the design scenario. There is no definitive evidence for systematic and significant
differences between the ground motions &om normal and strike-slip faulting earth-
quakes, but there is general consensus that reversefaulting events produce larger
amplitudes of motion. There is less agreement on the ratio of reverse to strike-slip
motions' and the extent to which the ratio varies with response period [Douglas,
20031. The best estimate of this ratio given by Bommer et al. [2003b] implies a
variation of about 12% in period range from 0.1 to 1.0 second, which would suggest
that inclusion of style-of-faulting in the record selection is not vital.
A point that is not often stated, but which is worth bearing in mind, is that
an additional criterion should also be added when setting up a small suite of real
records: the records should not come predominantly horn one recording station. A
possible exception to this condition would be in the case of the recording station
being located very close to the site of interest. Another possible criterion is that any
suite of records used in dynamic analyses should not be dominated by accelerograms
£?om a single earthquake event.
4.1. Matching c r i t e r i a
Spectral matching criteria specified in seismic design codes vary from being purely
descriptive to being highly prescriptive. An example of the former is the 1992 New
Zealand code in which the matching criterion is that "over the period range of in-
terest for the structwe being analysed, the 5% damped spectrum of the earthquake
record does not differ significantly from the design spectrum". In the 2002 version
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelemgrams 63
1 L I
DSW
PGA
s a b *;
T T T -
t .pzzq*
X records
sa,
&%A
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
I
1
Scale in time and amplitude
Fig. 9. Overview of the options available for scaling selected accelerograms match the ordinates
of the elastic response spectrum specified for design. The box marked 'Lselection"is expanded in
Fig. 4.
The dispersion of the results of dynamic analyses has been shown to be inversely
proportional to the square root of the number of records used. Shorne et al. [1998]
demonstrated that seven is a suitable number to produce acceptably low dispersion
in the results, although other studies have found that to obtain a stable mean in
the results of the structural analyses at least 10 records are required [A. Pecker,
personal communication,2003]. As well as ensuring a stable mean of the results,
consideration should also be given to the maximum spectral exceedance of any
of the individual records [McGuire et al., 20011 since even if the average of the
scaled record spectra match the target spectrum, there may be individual records
imposing exceptionally high demands on the structure. Selection procedures that
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
include criteria such as the D,, residual, as described previously, will help to avoid
these problems. As noted in the next subsection, spectral matching techniques can
also remove pronounced peaks and troughs from the selected records.
A final issue to also be considered is the issue of the two horizontal components of
. motion from each triaxial accelerogram. For any analysis requiring two orthogonal
components of horizontal motion to be used, careful consideration mustbe given to
the selection and scaling of the two acceleration time-histories, an issue addressed by
Malhotra [2003]. The guidelines for seismic design of bridges (Part 2) in Eurocode 8
expressly, and quite correctly, forbids the use of the same acceleration time-history
simultaneously in both horizontal directions. When the two components of one real
accelerogram have been chosen, it is recommended that their average ordinates be
used in deriving the scaling factor by comparison with the design spectrum and
the factor then applied to the two components separately in order to conserve their
differences, particularly for those cases where there is fault-normal and fault-parallel
polarisation [Stewart et al., 20011. The definition of the horizontal componentsof
motion used in deriving the design spectrum should also be kept in mind when
deriving the scaling factors, since ground-motion predict ion equations use a variety
of definitions, the most popular being the larger of the two horizontal components
and their geometric mean [Douglas, 20031.
Techniques are available that allow the user to manipulate real records not only
to scale their spectral ordinates but also to change the spectral shape [Preumont,
1984). The techniques make no claim to have a geophysical basis and their expressed
purpose is to obtain suites of records with low variability in order to reduce the
number of structural analyses required to obtain stable results. Some of these tech-
niques operate in the fkequency domain by adding harmonic components through-
out the record; the most widely used of these techniques is that embedded in the
program WES RASCAL [Silva and Lee, 1987) which has been widely employed and
recommended [e.g. Idriss, 19931.
A time-domain method, based on earlier proposals [Kaul, 1978; Lilhanand
and Tseng, 19881, with an improved capacity to preserve the non-stationary
66 J . J. Bummer €Y A. B. Acevedo
1
-
o,
0.1
i
Original I
- 1, RASCAL
1 , I
----;
3 RSPMATCH RASCAL
Y
RSPMATCH
__---"----*-----I----
t . . . . I . . . . I . . . . , . . . . , . . . .
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
should be based on the acceptable balance between the realistic nature of the input
motions and the number of analyses that can be performed. Surprisingly, despite
being matched to the elastic design spectrum over a wide period range, adjusted
records can sometimes produce lower structural demands than linearly scaled real
accelerograms, especially if the latter have been matched to the target spectrum in
log space and include significant exceedances of the target spectrum [N.A. Abra-
hamson, personal communication,20031.
Accelerograms can be scaled to achieve an improved match with the target spec-
trum, and possibly other specified criteria, by applying scalar factors to the ac-
celeration and/or time axes of the record. However, if there is a large mismatch
between the duration of a selected accelerogram and the duration specified for
the design scenario, there is no acceptable procedure to close the gap. Seed and
Idriss [I9691 produced an artificial accelerogram for a large magnitude (M 8.25)
earthquake by scaling and splicing records from smaller earthquakes, but this was
done at a time when the global strong-motion databank was very sparse. Scaling
the time axis of an accelerograrn can increase or decrease the significant duration,
which might be acceptable to compensate for small changes associated with dis-
tance (Fig. 8), but not to compensate for any mismatch in magnitude because for
that it would also be necessary to change the number of cycles of motion. Scaling
the time axis of a record changes not only the duration of the motion but also
the frequency content of the record over the entire period range; Kramer (19961
suggests that this procedure should be used with caution, advice with which we
strongly agree.
Procedures to obtain appropriate scaling factors, with the particular aim of
reducing the scatter in the ordinates of the scaled spectra or in the results of
inelastic analyses, have been discussed by Nau and Hall [1984], Matsumura [1992],
Shome et al. [1998], and Kappos and Kyriakakis [2000]. Martinez-Rueda [I9981
performed a parametric study on the response of inelastic SDOF systems with the
objective of identifying a suitable instrumental measure of ground-motion intensity
for the scaling of natural accelerograms. The scaling procedures proposed by all of
these researchers, with the exception of Shome et al. [1998], are based on the use of
variations of spectrum intensity. This is convenient, since the ordinates of a design
spectrum will invariably be available to the engineer.
Shome et al. [I9981 propose that records be scaled to match the median spectral
acceleration, obtained from ground-motion prediction equations, at the fundamen-
tal period of the structure. There are potential pitfalls in only considering the
spectral ordinate at the fundamental period since there is generally uncertainty
in the estimation of this parameter. Furthermore, as damage progresses there will
generally be period elongation and if higher modes contribute to the response then
shorter periods will also be of interest. For these reasons, in the current study the
focus is on scaling to match the target spectrum across a period range around the
fundamental period of the structure being analysed-
The present paper is considered to be complementary to these earlier studies
rather than to supersede them or to contradict their conclusions, for the simple
reason that the focus herein is largely on the selection of the records, which was
not a key issue addressed in the previous papers. Nau and Hall [1984] used only 12
ground-level records obtained on various different sites from both crustal and sub-
duction earthquakes with a large range of magnitudes. Nlatsurnura [1992] also used
only 12 components from US and Japanese accelerograms, the magnitude, distance
and site classifications not even being mentioned. Martinez-Rueda (19981 used both
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
1.4 as opposed to 1.8 for the rock data, and for the Greek records the magnitude
variation amongst the soil site recordings was just 1.3 compared with 2.1 for the
rock site accelerograms.
Amongst the studies cited above, the one which did give carefil consideration
to seismological and geophysical selection criteria was Shome et al. [1998], who
used records selected in magnitude-distance bins from stiff soil sites, excluding
accelerograms with near-source forward directivity pulses. As mentioned previously,
however, the study concluded that if the records are then individually scaled to
match the predicted median elastic spectral acceleration ordinate corresponding to
the scenario at the centre of the bin, careful selection in terms of magnitude and
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
5 . An Illustrative Example ,
The possibilities for using real accelerograms as input for engineering analysis and
design, and the issues involved, axe best illustrated by practical examples. In this
section two approximately compatible data searches are defined, one based on the
parameters of an earthquake scenario, the other on the ordinates of the elastic
design spectrum. The suites of records obtained from both searches are examined
and from each, using careful selection and adjustment of the records, appropriate
input for dynamic analysis is prepared.
In order tocompare and contrast the use of seismological and strong-motion param-
eters as the basis for data selection, two design situations have been defined. The
first is one that may be typical of engineering practice where the designer has ac-
cess to very little information about the underlying hazard and is simply presented
with an elastic design spectrum, in this case the Type 1 spectrum from Eurocode 8
[CEN, 20021. The design peak ground acceleration in bedrock is taken to be 0.3 g
and the chosen site class is B, corresponding to very dense sand or gravel, or very
stiff clay, with a 30 rn shear wave veldcity in the range from 360 rn/s to 800 m/s.
The 5% damped acceleration spectrum is anchored at 0.36 g (the product of the
bedrock PGA and the soil factor of 1.2), with a constant acceleration plateau at
0.9 g between 0.15 and 0.5 seconds (Fig. 11). The search for direct matching to
the EC8 spectrum was performed on the basis of the average D,, residual (see
Sec. 3.1) on the spectral shape being no greater than 0.09 in the period range from
0.1 to 0.4 seconds, and the PGA of the record lying in the range from 0.26 g to
0.46 g. The period range was chosen because between these limits there is close
agreement between the ordinates of EC8 spectrum and the spectral ordinates of
the design scenario described below (Fig. 11),and the maximum ordinates are the
same in both cases. At longer periods there is considerable divergence between the
- Design scenario (M6.4, 10 km,0.6 sigmas)
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
I
!
Period (seconds)
Fig. 11. Response spectra corresponding t o criteria used for strong-motion data searches: EC8
class B spectrum anchored to 0.3 g in bedrock (thick line), and a scenario represented by M , 6.4,
a stiff soil site at a distance of 10 km,and 0.6standard deviations above the median motions (thin
line).
ordinates of the code and scenario spectra, which is to be expected; the spectral
shape in EC8 was calibrated to normalised spectra from European accelerograrns
from earthquakes with magnitudes in the range from M , 6 to M s 7, but with a
strong bias towards the larger values [Rey et al., 20021. The search performed on
the basis of matching, in an average sense, the ordinates of the EC8 spectrum in
Fig. 11 yielded 40 strong-motion records from 22 earthquakes.
The second search is performed on the basis of an earthquake scenario chosen to
be representative.of the results that might be yielded from a disaggregation of the
500-year hazard in the seismically active parts of Europe. The scenario is defined
by a surface-wave magnitude M sof 6.4, a source-to-site distance of 10 km, and an
exceedance of the median values of spectral acceleration of about 0.6 standard
deviations; this value of 0.6 for E corresponds to the 73-percentile ground motion.
As for the Eurocode 8 spectrum, the site is characterised by stiff soil with a Vs,30
in the range from 360 to 800 m/s.
The spectral ordinates for this scenario, obtained using the prediction equations
of Arnbraseys et ol. 119961 - after smoothing the coefficients with a 114-112-114
running average - are shown in Fig. 11.
As shown in Sec. 3.2, the mod important geophysical parameter for selecting
records is earthquake magnitude, and therefore the search was designed to have a
small window on magnitude and a larger window on distance. Table 1 shows the
number of records recovered from different M-R search windows, including the effect
of adding the site classification as a third search parameter, for searches performed
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelerogrctms 71
Distance MS n/rg
on the Imperial College strong-motion data archive, which contains about 7000
records. The final search window, which yielded 55 ground-motion records from 16
earthquakes, was defined by the following limits: 6.2 5 h.l, 5 6.6,0 5 Rjb 5 40 krn,
and stiff soil.
An initially surprising result of the two searches is that there was not a single
accelerogram common to the two sets. However, if the basis of the selection criteria
are carefully considered, this result is perhaps less unexpected: unless an elastic
design spectrum has been obtained fiom a OSHA using median values fiom ground-
motion prediction equations, the scenario will always include an E term that will
be responsible for an appreciable proportion of the spectral amplitudes. For PSHA
in which no truncation is applied to the scatter in the ground-motion prediction
equations, the contribution from E will grow with the return period [e.g. Restrepo-
VBlez & Bommer, 20031. Only one earthquake was common to the results obtained
from the two searches (the 15 October 1979 Imperial Valley, California, main shock)
but each search picked up different records from this event. The M-R distributions,
and the site classifications for the records obtained by spectral matching, are shown
in Fig. 12.
The objective of the exercise is to produce an optimal suite of 10 accelerograms
born each dataset, for which there is a good match with the elastic spectral ordinates
specified for design, and for which there is low variability amongst the spectral
ordinates of the scaled records; an additional, but less critical objective, is to obtain
the suite with the least amount of scaling possible. The match is defined by the
average ordinates of 10 scaled spectra not being below the target spectrum in the
period range from 0.1 to 0.4 seconds. To begin with, there is as many as five times
the' required number of records in each data set, so some preliminary "manual"
pruning of the selections can be applied. This is done for each data set, and then
the reduced data sets are examined in order to perform further selection and then
to scale to the design spectrum; for both cases, the ordinates of the Eurocode 8
spectrum are taken as the target.
For simplicity, it is assumed that only a single horizontal component of motion
is required for each dynamic analysis. An additional clarification is required at this
point, related to the definition of the horizontal component of motion, as noted in
Sec. 4.1. Spectral ordinates predicted by the equations of Ambraseys et al. (19961
72 J . J . Bommer E4 A. B. Acevedo
unknown
A soft soil
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
V stiff soil
O alluvium
O rock
correspond to the envelope of the two horizontal components and the calibration
of the Eurocode 8 spectrum used a similar definition. For the records obtained
from the search in terms of magnitude, distance and site classification, the larger
component is chosen on the basis of the larger spectrum intensity; in most, but not
all, cases this is also the component with the larger PGA. For the search performed
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelerogmms 73
in terms of spectral ordinates, individual components are returned hence the issue
of selecting components does not arise.
The search based on minimising the average SRSS residuals between the actual and
target spectra yielded 42 single component records. A few of these can be elimi-
nated on the basis of representing outlier cases or other reasoning. For example,
one of the soft soil stations is actually classified as "very soft" (Vs,30 < 180 m/s),
so this may be eliminated (although it is noted in passing that there also exists
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
* unknown
A soft soil
V stiff soil
[7 alluvium
0 rock
relatively high average residuals and ratios significantly different from unity are
eliminated. On this basis, three records with average residuals greater than 0.078
and PGA ratios smaller than 0.8 are removed from the suite. The cluster of three
records with similarly high residuals but with PGA residuals above 1.2 are not
removed for the following reason: the ultimate goal is a suite of 10 records whose
average spectrum does not fall below the target EC8 spectrum in the period range
from 0.1 to 0.4 seconds. Since in both plots of Fig. 13 there are far more points
with ratios lower than unity than greater than one, it is decided to retain these
three records with rather high ratios of PGA and spectrum intensity, since they
may contribute to finding a good average match with the target spectrum without
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
1 I
Li
I
1- EC8spectmm
Mean of 10 records
1
Period (seconds)
Fig. 14. Mean ordinates of a suite of 10 accelerograms compared with t h e EC8 target spectrum;
for this combinations of records, no scaling or adjustment is required.
76 J . J . Bommer & A. B. Acevedo
amplitudes. All but one of these 10 records are from earthquakes of magnitude 6.6
or greater, with four coming from events of magnitude of 7.2 or above. The single
record from a smaller magnitude ( M , 5.9) earthquake was recorded at 5 km on
soft soil. In conclusion, this exercise reinforces the fact that selecting in terms of
matching to elastic spectral ordinates only is unlikely to result in accelerograms that
are consistent with the underlying design earthquake scenario (which, it is recalled,
in this case is l\il, 6.4 at 10 km and a s t 8 soil site). This is the fundamental problem
in the specification of acceleration time-series in current seismic design codes, as
discussed previously.
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
The search for records horn stiff soil sites with magnitudes in the range fils 6.2-
6.6 and distances in the range from 0 to 40 krn yielded 55 accelerograms from 16
earthquakes; a point worth noting is that 20 of the component records are from a
single event, the 1983 Coalinga (California) earthquake, all recorded in the distance
range from 31 to 40 km.
There are several options for reducing the dataset of 55 records to a more man-
ageable number, but care must be taken not to remove potentially useful records
in the process.
The 10 records with distances closest to scenario distance of 10 km are from six
earthquakes, with four of the records coming from a single event. As was mentioned
earlier, it is advisable not to have any single earthquake event or recording station
excessively represented, whence it would be advisable to drop a t least two of the
four records from the same earthquake, and choose others, albeit from greater dis-
tances, in their place. This procedure will be re-visited after considering alternative
strategies.
Another way to proceed with the search would be to now include the style-of-
faulting as a fourth criterion, which would generally be feasible because in most
regions of the world the dominant rupture mechanism for nearby seismic sources
is usually known with some confidence. However, there are two arguments against
doing this, as indicated previously, the first being that the style-of-faulting does not
exert such a strong influence on the ground motion, and the second being that the
inclusion of this parameter can be very restrictive in terms of the number of records
that will be retained. There are six records from two normal faulting earthquakes,
13 records horn six strike-slip events, and 35 records from six reverse ruptures, plus
a single record from an event classified as oblique.
An alternative way to proceed is now to search within the selected suite of
55 records using the spectral matching criteria that were used to search the suite
of accelerograms examined in the preceding subsection. Figure 15 shows the same
information as Fig. 13 but for the records selected on the basis of magnitude,
distance and site classification. Since all the records are from the same site class,
different symbols are used to represent the style-of-faulting of the earthquakes. The
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelerograms 77
A normal
oblique
V strike-slip
0 reverse
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
selected records are from much longer distances than the target of 10 km (Fig. 12)
and since the target spectrum corresponds to the 73-percentile motions, only one-
in-four of the records obtained at the scenario distance would be expected to match
the target spectrum. Therefore, it can be concluded at this point that it is very
unlikely that a suite of records can be found whose mean ordinates will match the
elastic design spectrum without some form of scaling being applied to the records.%
Figure 16 shows the spectrum intensity ratios and average norrnalised residuals,
without distinction by style-of-faulting, for only those records recorded within 25 km
of the source. Comparison of Figs. 15 and 16 shows that the use of a smaller
window on distance mainly removes the very low amplitude records, although a few
records with favourable characteristics have also been lost. Nonetheless, this reduced
selection of 17 records is retained since it has been obtained in a fashion that is likely
to be followed in routine data searches. The 17 records come from nine earthquakes,
and two of them are recordings horn one station of two consecutive events separated
by a few hours (each shown as an asterisk in the plot). Immediately there is the
issue that in selecting the final 10 records it is desirable not to have any one event or
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
Table 2. Records selected by magnitude (M, 6.2-6.6), distance less than 25 km except No. 14
(see text), and stiff soil sites.
Average of 10 records
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
Period (seconds)
Fig. 17. Combination of 10 records whose mean ordinates are close to the target spectrum, using
only records from less than 25 km.
Period (seconds)
Fig. 18. Combination of records whose mean ordinates are close t o the target spectrum, including
record No. 14 (see Table 2).
82 J . J . Bommer & A. 8.Acevedo
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
1 I i I I
Period (seconds)
Fig. 19. Comparison of average spectral ordinates with EC8 target spectrum and the suite of 10
individually scaled records identified in Table 2.
Period (seconds)
Fig. 20. Comparison of coefficients of variation,against period, for the suites of 10 records whose
average ordinates are presented in Figs. 14, 18 and 19.
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelemgmms 83
in Table 2 are encouraging: as many as four of the 10 records are retained at their
natural scale, and, as noted below, a relatively low level of dispersion is achieved.
As has been mentioned previously, a key issue in compiling a suite of records
to be used in dynamic analysis is the dispersion amongst the scaled records. In
fact, the real issue is the dispersion in the inelastic structural responses, but this is
dependent upon the specific structural model employed and is therefore beyond the
scope of this study. Figure 20 shows the variation of COV (coefficient of variation)
with response period for the suites of scaled records whose average spectral ordinates
are shown in Figs. 14, 18 and 19. The loweit dispersibn is clearly that of records that
were selected on the basis of matching spectral ordinates (Fig. 14). This does not,
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
however, militate against the use of seismological criteria for the selection of records
since the dispersion of the inelastic responses obtained using the latter records may
well be higher due to the greater variation in the strong-motion durations. However,
it would still be desirable to reduce the COV values for the records selected on the
basis of seismological and geophysical parameters. Figure 20 clearly shows that the
dispersion of the records that are individually scaled after selection by seismological
criteria is not much larger than that associated with the records selected on the basis
of matching the target spectrum, with the advantage of more consistent durations.
Of course, even lower COV's could be obtained using the adjustment procedures
described in Sec. 4.2, but at the expense of creating less realistic ground motions.
horn seismically active areas are to be used in low seismicity stable continental re-
gions. However, amongst seismicdy active regions, the implicit assumption made
in this study is that regional differences amongst the ground motions horn crustal
earthquakes in different regions are, for similar combinations of magnitude, depth,
style-of-faulting, distance and site classification, sufficiently small to be ignored.
This is a topic that is clearly worthy of further research, but there is currently no
convincing evidence to invalidate the assumption.
the structure. Such a conclusion will depend on large numbers of studies considering
a wide range of realistic structural models. Martinez-Rueda [I9981 urges caution in
extrapolating his conclusions, which are based on inelastic analysis of SDOF models,
to MDOF structures. Kappos and Kyriakakis [2000] examine more realistic MDOF
structural models, but as has been pointed out in this paper, their analysis has
some shortcomings in terms of the characterisation of the input. The conclusions
made by Shome et al. [I9981 are also based on analysis of MDOF structural models,
but only one model is used, representing a steel structure - which can be expected
to be less affected by duration than a reinforced concrete structure [e.g. Jeong and
Iwan, 19881 - of 5 storeys, and for the ,damage metric based on dissipated energy
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
their conclusion of duration exerting a negligible influence did not hold. Bornmer et
al. [ZOO41 studied the inelastic response of a series of masonry structures to a large
suite of strong-motion accelerograms and correlated the damage, measured in terms
of the loss of initial strength, with the average ordinate of the elastic acceleration
spectrum from initial period of the structure to a period about three times greater.
The study showed that some of the scatter in this correlation could be explained
by differences in the strong-motion duration of the records. However, that study
was focused on the assessment of existing vulnerable building stock rather than the
earthquake resistant-design of new constructions.
subsets of records, and the application of individual scaling factors, can result in
a good match with the target spectrum and reduced dispersion amongst the scaled
records, as well as allowing many of the records to be used either at natural scale or
with only limited adjustment of their original amplitudes. It must be pointed out,
however, that this will not hold for situations with very high amplitudes of design
motions that may arise for the low annual frequencies of exceedance specified for
critical projects.
Executing fully dynamic non- linear structural analyses is t ime-consuming (and
therefore costly) in engineering practice and the use of spectrum-compatible records,
which allow fewer rum to be made, will often be preferred by design engineers. Our
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
In many cases, searching records in terms of earthquake scenarios will not be pos-
sible because the engineer will only have access to the design response spectrum
without any knowledge of the underlying hazard calculations. Matching PGA and
the spectral shape has been shown to be a superior approach to matching spectral
intensities, but regardless of the search parameters there is likely to be little control
on the duration - especially if the matching is focused on short-period spectral
ordinates - and hence there may be a large dispersion in the results of inelastic
analyses.
In nearly all current seismic design codes the earthquake actions are represented
by an approximation to a uniform hazard spectrum (UHS) obtained from a PSHA,
hence if accelerograms are to be selected in terms of magnitude and distance the
codes will need to present, in some form, the controlling earthquake scenarios to the
users. The disaggregated hazard can be displayed as supplementary maps showing
controlling scenarios for spectral ordinates at different periods [e-g. Harmsen et
a[., 19991; if the code drafters were prepared to surrender the UHS representation,
then an alternative would be to actually replace current zonation maps in codes
with maps showing contours of hazard-consistent magnitude and hazard-consistent
distance, from which the spectral ordinates can then be calculated [Bommer, 2000).
In view of the degree of approximation in the specification of earthquake actions
in seismic design codes, it would probably be feasible to simply present, in tabular
form, the magnitude-distance pairs defining the controlling earthquake scenarios for
each seismic zone. A useful extension to this would be for the code to provide a list of
suitable records identified to match each of these scenarios; the records themselves,
perhaps pre-scaled to ensure matchmg with the design elastic spectrum, could be
made available either on a CD- RObI distributed with the code or else accessed
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelemgmms 87
The authors firstly wish to express their gratitude to Dr John Douglas for his
interest in the work and for providing us with the current statistics of the European
strong-motion database. Additional thanks are due to Dr Douglas for carrying out
the data searches using the beta-version of his CD-ROM based search tool; the
opportunity to employ this facility before its general release is greatly appreciated.
We also express our thanks to Dr Rui Pinho and Dr Alain Pecker who read and
commented constructively on an early version of the manuscript. The second version
of the paper was further improved by very helpful comments from Edmund Booth
and Jonathan Hancock; particular thanks are due to Juliet Bird and Luis Fernando
Restrepo-V61ez7 who both provided useful reviews of two different versions of the
manuscript. Very thorough reviews by Dr David Boore, Dr Norm Abrahamson and
an anonymous reviewer, all of which significantly improved the paper, are also noted
with special gratitude. The first author also wishes to acknowledge the insights
obtained from discussions of the issues addressed herein with Dr Paul Sornerville.
We are also grateful to Dr Walt Silva, for providing us with the RASCAL
computer code, and to Dr Norm Abrahamson, for providing the RSPMATCH code.
We also extend our thanks to Melinda Squibb for providing us with information
about the COSMOS database.
References
Abrahamson, N. A. [I9931 "Spatial variation of multiple support inputs ," Proceedings of
the First US Symposium on Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Steel Bridges, Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley, 18 October.
Abrahamson, N. A. and Shedlock, K. M. (19971 "Overview," Seismological Research Letters
68(1),S 2 3 .
Abrahamson, N. A. and Silva, W. J. [I9961 "Empirical ground motion models," Report to
Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Abrahamson, N . A. and Silva, W. J. [1997] "Empirical response spectral attenuatidn
relations for shallow crustal earthquakes," Seismological Research Letters 68(1),
94-127.
88 J. J. Bmrner & A. B. Acevedo
Ambraseys, N. N., Smit, P., Berardi, D., Cotton, F. and Berge, C. [2000] "D'
issemina-
tion of European strong-rnotion data," CD-ROM Collection, European Commission,
Directorate-General XII, Environmental and Climate Programme, ENVPCT97-0397,
Brussels, Belgium.
Ambraseys, N. N., Smit, P., Douglas, J., Margaris, B., Sigbjljmsson, R., ~lafsson,O.,
Suhadolc, P.and Costa, G . [2003] "Internet site for European strong-motion data,"
Bolletino di Geofisim Twrica ed Applicata, in press.
ATC (19991 "Proceedings: Workshop on improved characterization of strong ground shak-
ing for seismic design," ATC-35, Applied Technology Council, Redwood City, Cali-
fornia, 70 pp.
Bazzurro, P. and Cornell, C. A. (19991 "Disaggregation of seismic hazard," Bulletin of the
Seismological Society of America 89, 501-520.
Beresnev, I. A. and Atkinson, G. M. (19981 "FINSIM - A FORTRAN program for simu-
lating stochastic acceleration time histories from finite faults," Seismological Research
Letters 69(l),27-32.
Bommer, J. J. [2000] uSeismic zonation for comprehensive definition of earthquake ac-
tions," Pmceedings of the Sixth lnternational Conference on Seismic Zonation, Palm
Springs, California.
Bommer, J. J. and Ambraseys, N. N. [I9921 "An earthquake strong-motion databank and
database," Proceedings of the Tenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
Madrid 1,207-210.
Bommer, J. J. and Martinez-Pereira, A. [I9991 T h e effective duration of earthquake
strong motion," Journal of Earthquake Engineering 3(2), 127-172.
Bommer, J. J. and Martinez-Pereira, A. [2000] "Strong-motion parameters: Definition,
usefulness and predictability," Proceedings of the Twelfih World Conference on Earth-
quake Engineer6ng, Auckland, Paper No. 206.
Bommer, J. J. and Ruggeri, C. (20021 T h e specification of acceleration time-histories in
seismic design codes," Eumpean Earthwake Engineering 16 (I), 3-1 7.
Bommer, J. J. and Scott, S. G. [2000] "The feasibility of using real accelerograms for
seismic design," In: Implications of Recent Earthquakes on Sezsnazc Risk, eds. A.S.
Elnashai and S. Antoniou, Imperial College Press, pp. l l b l 2 6 .
Bommer, J. J. Acevedo, A. B. and Douglas, J. [2003a] 'The selection and scaling of
real earthquake accelerograms for use in seismic design and assessment ," Pmceedzngs
of ACI International Conference on Seismic Bridge Design and R e t d t , American
Concrete Institute.
Bommer, J. J., Douglas, J. and Strasser, F. 0. [2003b] "S tyle-of-faulting in pound-motion
prediction equations," Bulletin of Earthquake Enginee7ing 1(2), 171-203.
The Use of Real Earthquake Accelerograms 89
Bommer, J. J., Magenes, G., Hancock, J. and Penazzo, P. [2004] "Influence of strong-
motion duration on the seismic response of masonry structures,;' Bulletin of Earth-
quake Engineering 2(1).
Bommer, J. J., Scott, S. G. and Sarma, S. K. [I9981 "Time-history representation of
seismic hazard ," Proceedings of the El eventh European Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Paris.
Bornmer, J. J., Scott, S. G. and Sarma, S. K. [2000] 'LHazard-consistentearthquake sce-
narios," Soil Dynamics & Earthquake E n g i n e e h g 19,219-231.
Boore, D. M. [2003] "Simulation of ground motion using the stochastic method," Pure
and Applied Geophysics 160, 635-676.
Boore, D. M. [ZOO41 "Can site response be predicted?" thls volume.
Boore, D. M., Stephens, C. D. and Joyner, W. B. (20021 "Comments on baseline correc-
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
tion of digital strong-motion data: Examples from t he 1999 Hector Mine, California,
earthquake," Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 92(4), 1543-1560.
Boore, D. M., W. B. Joyner and Fumal, T. E. (19971 "Equations for estimating horizontal
response spectra and peak acceleration from western North American earthquakes: A
summary of recent work," Seismological Research Letters 68(1), 128-153.
Boore, D. M.,Sims, J. D., Kanamori, H. and Harding, S. (1981) "The Montenegro, Yu-
goslavia earthquake of April 15, 1979: Source orientation and strength," Physics of
the Earth and Planetary Interiors 27, 133-142.
Campbell, K. W. [I9971 "Empirical near-source attenuation relationships for horizon-
tal and vertical components of peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and
pseudo-absolute acceleration response spectra," ~ e i s m o l o ~ z &Reseuxh
l Letters 68(1),
154-179.
CEN [ZOO21 Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance. Part 1: Gen-
eral rules, seismic actions and rule for buildings. Draft No. 5, M a y 2002, Document
CEN/TC250/SC8/N317, Cornit6 Europkn de Normalisation, Brussels.
Chapman, M. C . [I9951 "A probabilistic approach to ground-motion selection for engi-
neering design," Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 85, 937-942.
Cramer, C. H. and Darragh, R. B. [I9941 "Peak accelerations from the 1992 Landers and
Big Bear, California, earthquakes," Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
84(3) 589-595.
Douglas, J. (20031 "Earthquake ground motion estimation using strong motion records:
A review of equations for the estimation of peak ground acceleration and response
spectral ordinates," Earth Science Revlews 6 1,43-104.
Gasparini, D. A. and Vanmarcke, E. H. [1979] "Simulated earthquake motions compatible
with prescribed response spectra," Evalzlation of Seismic Safety of Buildings Report
No. 2, Department of Civil Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 99 pp.
Harmsen, S. D., Perkins, D. and Frankel, A. [I9991 "Deaggregation of probabilistic ground
motions in the Central and Eastern United States," Bulletin of the Seismological
Society of Arnericu 89, 1-13.
Hudson, D. E. [I9791 "Reading and interpreting strong motion accelerograms," EERI
Monograph, Earthquake Engineering Research Inst it ut e, Oakland, California.
Idriss, I. M. [I9931 "Procedures for selecting earthquake ground motions a t rock sites,"
NIST GCR 93-625,National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg,
MD, 35 pp.
IS0 [2003] Petroleum and natural gas industries -.Specific requirements for offshore
structures - Part 2: Seismic design procedures and criteria. ISQ/DIS 19901-2,In-
ternational Organization for Standardization.
Iyama, J. and Kuwamura, H. (19991 "Application of wavelets to analysis and simulation of
earthquake motions," Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 28, t255-277.
Jeong, G. D. and Iwan, W. D. (19881 T h e effect of earthquake duration on the damage
of structures," Earthquake Engineering & Stmctvral Dynamics 16, 1201-121 1.
Kappos, A. J. and Kyriakakis, P. [2000] "A reevaluation of scaling techniques for natural
records," Soil Dynamics & Earthpalce Engineering 20, 111-123.
Kaul, Evl. K. [I9781 "Spectrum-consistent time-history generation," ASCE Journal of the
Engznee7ang Mechanics DiPrlsh 104(ME4), 781-788.
Kramer, S. L. [1996] Geotechnid Earthquake Engineering, PrenticeHall.
Krinitzsky, E. L. [2002] "How to obtain earthquake ground motions for engineering design,"
Engineering Geology 65, 1-16.
Krinitzsky, E. L. and Chang, F. K. (19771 "Specifying peak motions for design earth-
quakes," State-of-the-Art for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States, Re-
port 7, Miscellaneous Paper S-73-1. US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, blissis
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
sippi.
Lee, W. H. K., Shin, T. C., Kuo, K. W., Chan, K. C. and Wu, C. F. [2001] "CWB freefield
strong-motion data from the 21 September Chi-Chi, Taiwan,earthquake," Bulletin
of the Seismological society of America 9 1(5), 137&1376.
Leeds, D. J. [I9921 "Recommended accelerograms for earthquake ground motions," State-
of-the-Art for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States, Report 28, Miscel-
laneous Papers 5-73-1,US A m y Corps of Engineering, Vicksburg.
Lekidis, V. A., Karakostas, C. Z., Dimitriu, P. P., Pl/largaris, B. N., Kalogeras, I. and
Theodulidis, N. (19991 "The Aigio (Greece) seismic sequence of June 1995: Seisme
logical, strong motion data and effects of the earthquakes on structures," Journal of
Earthquake Engineering 3(3), 34S380.
Lilhanand, K. and Tseng, W. S. [I9881 "Development and application of realistic earth-
quake time histories' compatible with multiple-damping design spectra," Proceedings
of the Ninth World Confemnce on Earthquake Engzneering, Tokyo-Kyoto 2, 819-824.
Malhotra, P. K. [2003] "Strong-motion records for site-specific analysis," Earthquake Spec-
tm 19(3), 557-578.
Martinez-Rueda, J. E. [I9981 "Scaling procedure for natural accelerograms based on a
system of spectrum intensity scales," Earthquake Spectra 14(1), 135-152.
Matsurnura, K. [I9921 "On the intensity measure of strong motions related to structural
failures," Proceedings of the Tenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
Madrid 1,375-380.
McGuire, R. K. [1995] "Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and design earthquakes:
Closing the loop,", Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 85, 1275-1284.
McGuire, R. K., Silva, W. J. and Constantino, C. J. [2001] ''Technical basis for revision
of regulatory guidance on design ground motions: Hazard- and risk-consistent ground
motion spectra guidelines," NUR EG/CR-6728, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington D .C.
Mukherjee, S. and Gupta, V. K. [ZOO21 "Wavelet-based generation of spectrum-compatible
time-histories," Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Engineefing 22, 799-804.
Naeim, F. and Anderson, J. C. 119961 "Design classification of horizontal and verti-
cal earthquake ground motion (1933-1994)," A Report to the USGS, JAMA Report
No. 7738.68-96,John A. Martin & Associates, Inc., Los Angeles.
Naeim, F.and Lew, M. 119951 "On the use of design spectrum compatible time histories,"
Earthquake Spectm 11(1), 111-127.
Nau, J. M. and Hall, W. J. [I9841 L'Scalingmethods for earthquake response spectra,"
ASCE Journal of Structuml Engineering llO(7), 1533-1548.
Preumont, A. [I9841 "The generation of spectrum compatible accelerograms for the de-
sign of nuclear power plants," Earthquake Engineering 0 Structuml Dynamics 12(4),
481-497.
The Use of Real Earthquake Acceierogram 91
Reiter, L. [1990] Earthquake Huzard Analysis: Issues and Insights. Columbia University
Press.
Restrepo-VBlez, L. F. and Bommer, J . J. [2003] "An exploration of the nature of the
scatter in ground-motion prediction equations and the implications for seismic hazard
assessment ," Journal of Earthquake Engineering 7(Special Issue 1), 171-1 99.
Rey, J., Faccioli, E., and Bommer, J. J. [2002] "Derivation of design soil coefficients (S) and
response spectral shapes for Eurocode 8 using the European strong-motion database,"
Journal of Seismology 6 , 547-555.
Row, L. W. [I9961 "An earthquake strong-motion data catalog for personal computers -
SMCAT," User ilianual (version 2.U), National Geophysical Data Center, Colorado.
Seed, H. B. and Idriss, I. M. [I9691 "Rock motion accelerograms for high magnitude earth-
quakes," EERC Report No. 69-7, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University
Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 21:43 08 December 2013
of California at Berkeley.
Seekins, L. C., Brady, A. G., Carpenter, C. and Brown, N.[I9921 YXgitized strong-motion
accelerograms from North and Central America through 1986," US Geological Survey
Digital Data Series DDS-7.
Shome, N., Cornell, C. A., Bazzurro, P. and Carballo, J. E. [I9981 cLEarthquakes,records
and nonlinear responses," Earthquake Spectra 14(3), 46!3-500.
Silva, W. J. and Lee, K. (19871 "WES RASCAL code for synthesizing earthquake ground
motions," State-of-the-Art for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States,
Report 24, Miscellaneous Paper $73-1. US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg,
Mississippi.
Somerville, P. G., Smith, N. F., Graves, R. W. and Abrahamson, N. A. [I9971 lLModification
of empirical strong ground motion attenuation relations to include the amplitude
and directivity effects of rupture directivity," Seismological Research Letters 68(1),
199-222.
Stepp, C. J. [ZOO01 "Coordination of strong-motion programs and strong-motion data
dissemination," P m d i n g s of the Twelfth World Conference on Earthquake Engi-
neering, AuckIand, Paper No. 2600.
Stewart, J. P., Chiou, S.-J., Bray, J. D., Graves, R. W., Sornerville, P. G. and Abrahamson,
N. A. [2001] "Ground motion evaluation procedures for performance-based design,"
PEER Report 2001/09, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University
of California, Berkeley.
Sunder, S. S. and Connor, J. J. [1982] LLA new procedure for processing earthquake strong-
motion signals," Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72 (2), 643-661.
Trifunac, M. D., Udwadia, F. E. and Brady, A. G. [I9791 'LAnalysisof errors in digitized
strong-motion accelerograms," Bulletin of the Seismologicd Society of America 63( I ) ,
157-187.
Vanmarcke, E. H. [I9791 "Representation of earthquake ground motion: Scaled accelere
grams and equivalent response spectra," State-of-the-Art for Assessing Earthquake
Hazards in the United States, Report 14, hdiscellaneous Paper S-73-1. US Army Corps
of Engineers, Vicksburg, hlississippi.
Wald, D. (19971 "Surfing the Internet for strong-motion data," Seismological Research
Letters 68(5), 766-769.
Zeng, Y., Anderson, J. G. and Yu, G. [I9941 "A composite source model for comput-
ing realistic synthetic strong ground mot ions," Geophysical Research Letters 2 1(8),
725-728.