UNIT 5
CES 4 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
UNIT 5
GROUND MOTION PARAMETERS
AND MODELS
(ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS)
Important in earthquake engineering
because when we talk about ground
motion parameters, they help us to
quantify the damage potential or
intensity and other important
characteristics of ground motion.
Basically, they describe ground
motions when there are seismic
excitations.
Attenuation relationships are models
help us predict strong ground
motions in particular sites. The
Ground Motion Models or
Attenuation Relationships are actually
1
our Ground Motion Prediction
Equations. While tackling this, we will
encounter empirical equations.
Empirical Equations – are equations
derived from time-histories of
different parameters that concerns
ground motion or strong ground
motions. Most of these equations
were obtained by using regression
analysis. Because as far as ground
motions are concerned, there are
several data that we will obtain that
are expected to be scattered, and
finding the best-fit-line will help
formulate equations or models for
each corresponding data. There
different ways to characterize ground
motion. Some of which are below:
 UNIT 5

By Duration Cycle is also called or referred as

Short-duration oscillation, the single change from up
Koyna 1967 to down back to up. It is considered
Helena 1935 as one cycle when the trend of the
Long-duration wave is when it goes up then goes
Chile 1985 down then goes up again.
Mexico City 1985

By Amplitudes
Low Amplitudes
San Francisco 1957
Lytle Creek 1970

High Amplitudes
Northridge 1994 Wavelength is the distance of similar
San Fernando 1971 points from back-to-back waves.
(crest-to-crest or trough-to-trough)
By Frequencies
Peaks are notable on first few
cycles
Stone Canyon

Peaks that are notable

throughout whole duration
Chile 1985
Frequency – the number of times a
specified event occurs within a
specified time interval. Standard unit
of frequency is Hertz which is one
cycle per second. The specified event
in our discussion is the “cycle”.
Amplitude is the height or the force
or the power of the wave.
Different parameters of ground
motion will have different effect on
the response of the structure. That is
why on the next topics that we will be

2

tackling, we will include the Spectral
Responses - Elastic and Inelastic
Spectra. But for now, we will be
discussing the Ground Motion
Parameters.
GROUND MOTION PARAMETERS
They are essential for describing the
important characteristics of strong
ground motion in compact,
quantitative form. (So basically, when
we have a particular quantitative
data that pertains to ground motion,
it will give us information as to the
characteristic to the ground motion.)
Many parameters have been
proposed to characterize the
amplitude, frequency content, and
durations of strong ground motions;
some describe only one of these
characteristics, while others may
reflect two or three. But “because of
the complexity of earthquake ground
motions, identification of a single
parameter that accurately describes
all important ground motion
characteristics is regarded as
impossible.” (Jennings 1985; Joyner
an Boore, 1988) Earthquakes are
complex in a way that it happens in
unpredicted time, basically we can’t
also predict how strong the
earthquake is. Thus, most of our
parameters or basis how to describe a
particular earthquake, we only use
3
UNIT 5
one parameter, e.g. amplitude,
frequency content, duration.
TYPES GROUND MOTION
PARAMETERS
Amplitude Parameters
Frequency Content Parameters
Duration
Other Ground Motion
Parameters
AMPLITUDE PARAMETERS
o Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA)
o Peak Ground Velocity (PGA)
o Peak Ground Displacement (PGD)
o Other Amplitude Parameters
 Effective Acceleration
 Sustained Maximum
Acceleration
 Sustained Maximum Velocity
 Effective Design Acceleration
PEAK GROUND ACCELERATION (PGA)
– the resultant of the components of
peak horizontal acceleration and peak
vertical acceleration
PEAK HORIZONTAL ACCELERATION
(PHA) for a given component of
motion is simply the largest
(absolute) value of horizontal
acceleration obtained from the
accelerogram of that component.
PHA is actually the most commonly
used measure of the amplitude of a
particular ground motion. Take note
 UNIT 5

that we are talking about amplitude to withstand the effects of vertical

parameters. accelerations.

Vertical accelerations have received The following picture shows

less attention in earthquake attenuation relationship models
engineering than margins of safety based on parameters of acceleration
against gravity-induced static vertical and intensity (qualitative):
forces in constructed works usually  Ishimoto 1932
provide adequate resistance to  Kawasumi 1951
dynamic forces induced by vertical  Savarensky and Kimos 1955
accelerations during earthquakes. In  Hershberger 1956
other words, it is because when we  Richter 1958
design buildings, we already consider  Medvedev and Sponheuer
gravity-induced loadings such as dead 1969
loads, floor loads, floor pressures, the  JMA (Okamoto, 1973)
margins of safety are already enough  Trifunac and Brady (1975a) –

horizontal

4
 UNIT 5

 Trifunac and Brady (1975a) – consequently, it must be

vertical supplemented by additional
information to characterize a ground
For engineering purposes, the peak motion accurately. So, most of the
vertical acceleration (PVA) is often parameters only characterize a single
assumed to be two-thirds of the PHA parameter: as to the amplitude, as to
(Newmark and Hall, 1982). the frequency content, or as to the
duration.
The ratio of PVA to PHA, however, has
more recently been observed to be
quite variable but generally to be
greater than two-thirds near the
source of moderate to large
earthquakes and less than two-thirds
at large distances (Campbel, 1985;
Abrahamson and Litehiser, 1989)

Ground motions with high peak

accelerations are usually, but not
always, more destructive with lower
peak accelerations. Very high peak
accelerations that last only for a very
short period of time may cause little
damage to many types of structures.
If you’re going to observe the graph,
you could really say that ground
motions with high peak accelerations
are more destructive because they
are directly related, the PGA and MM
Intensity. Thus, if the acceleration or
PGA increases, the intensity also
increases or also high.
Although peak acceleration is a very
useful parameter, it provides no
information on the frequency content
or duration of the motion;
Figure 3.10 shows the acceleration,
velocity, and displacement time
histories for the E-W components of
the Gilroy No. 1 (rock) and Gilroy No.
2 (soil) strong motion records [these
are the time histories recorded in
Gilroy California during Loma Prieta
Earthquake in October 17,1989]. The
velocities and displacements were
obtained by integrating the
acceleration records shown in the
figure using the trapezoidal rule. Note

5

that the Gilroy No. 1(rock) site
experienced higher accelerations, but
the Gilroy No. 2 (soil) site
experienced higher velocities and
displacements.
Acceleration time histories recorded
at two sites in Gilroy, California during
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
The Gilroy No. 1 instrument was
located on an outcrop of Fanciscan
sandstone, while the Gilroy No. 2
instrument was underlain by 165m
(540 ft) of stiff, alluvial soils. The
Gilroy No. 1 (rock) and Gilroy No. 2
(soil) sites were located at epicentral
distances of 21.8 km (13.5 miles) and
22.8 km (14.2 miles), respectively.
PEAK GROUND VELOCITY
Since velocity is less sensitive to the
higher-frequency components of the
ground motion, as illustrated in
Figure 3.10, the PHV is more likely
than the PHA to characterize ground
motion amplitude accurately at
intermediate frequencies.
For structures or facilities that are
sensitive to loading in this
intermediate-frequency range (e.g.,
tall or flexible buildings, bridges, etc.),
the PHV may provide a much more
accurate indication of the potential
for damage than the PHA. PHV has
6
UNIT 5
also been correlated to earthquake
intensity (e.g., Trifunac and Brady,
1975a; Krinitzsky and Chang, 1987)
PEAK GROUND DISPLACEMENTS
Peak displacements are generally
associated with the lower-frequency
components of an earthquake
motion. They are however, often
difficult to determine accurately
(Campbell, 1985; Joyner and Boore,
1988), due to signal processing error
in the filtering and integration of
accelerograms and due to long-period
noise.
As a result, peak displacement is less
commonly used as a measure of
ground motion than the peak
acceleration or peak velocity.
OTHER AMPLITUDE PARAMETERS
Newmark and Hall (1982) describe
the concept of an effective
acceleration as “that acceleration
which is most closely related to
structural response and to damage
potential of an earthquake. It differs
from and is less than the peak free-
field ground acceleration. It is a
function of the size of the loaded
area, the frequency content of the
excitation, which in turn depends on
the closeness to the source of the
earthquake, and to the weight,

embedment, damping characteristic,
and stiffness of the structure and its
foundation.”
The previous discussed parameters
only describe peak amplitude of
single cycles within the ground
motion time history. And there are
some cases where the damage of
structure may be closely related to
the peak amplitude but may require
several repeated cycles of high
amplitude to develop.
For example, sometimes in our
acceleration time history, at first few
cycles the amplitude is already
notable. But according to some
amplitude parameters, you still have
to consider the other peak amplitude
at different frequencies. In other
words, in one period, there will be a
corresponding frequency content,
having several amplitudes as well,
then those other amplitudes should
be considered as well to have a
reliable data.
Nuttli (1979) used lower peaks of the
accelerogram to characterize strong
motion by defining the sustained
maximum acceleration for three (or
five) cycles as the third (or fifth)
highest (absolute) value of
acceleration in the time history. The
sustained maximum velocity was
defined similarly.
7
UNIT 5
Since pulses of high acceleration at
high frequencies induce little
response in most structures,
Benjamin and Associates (1988)
proposed that an effective design
acceleration be taken as the peak
acceleration that remains after
filtering out acceleration above 8 to 9
Hz. Kennedy (1980) proposed that
the effective design acceleration be
25% greater than the third highest
absolute peak acceleration obtained
from a filtered time history.
ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS:
ESTIMATION OF AMPLITUDE
PARAMETERS
Attenuation relationships, recently
referred to as ground motion or
strong-motion models, are analytical
expressions describing ground motion
variation with at least magnitude and
source distance. In other words, these
attenuation relationships are
empirical. When we say empirical, it
has gone through series of
undertakings for us to be able to
come up with such models or
equations.
Attenuation relationships permit the
estimation of both the ground motion
at a site from a specified event and
the uncertainty associated with the
prediction. Thus, out from our
attenuation relationships, they will
 UNIT 5

help us to describe the ground motion of a particular earthquake and also,

we can predict as to when we will
exceed or when will be the time that it will have an exceedance.

The basic functional form for attenuation relationships is a s follows:

log ( Y ) =log ( b1 ) + log [ f 1 ( M ) ]+ log [ f 2 ( R ) ] +log [ f 3 ( M , R ) ] +¿

log [ f 4 ( Ei ) ]+ log ⁡(ε )

where Y is the ground motion parameter to be computed and b 1 is a scaling

factor. The second-to-fourth terms on the right-hand-side are function f i of
the magnitude M , source-to-site distance R and possible source, site and
geologic structure effects Ei . Uncertainty and errors are quantified through
the parameter ε .

The peak ground motion parameters Attenuation in terms of intensity scale

decrease as the epicentral distance is important for historical
increases. The attenuation shape earthquakes, where only intensity is
depends on the magnitude. When we available.
talk about attenuation, it is about
how our seismic wave decreases in Relationships for horizontal peak
intensity. Because definitely, from the ground acceleration PGA and velocity
source to the monitoring station, PGV:
motion due to seismic waves tends to
( 0.30 ) ( I MM )
be weaker. PGA=( 1.02 ) ( 10 )

8
 UNIT 5

( 0.25 ) ( I MM )
PGV =( 0.23 ) ( 10 ) where I MM is the Modified
Mercalli Intensity.
The formulations relating intensity to peak ground acceleration are clearly too
simplistic and do not account reliably for parameters influencing earthquake
damage potential.

The subjective and discrete nature of intensity scales does not allow an accurate
description of structural damage. Because it is very subjective since we use the
intensity, which means it is based on people different perceptions or what they
have observed during an earthquake.

ATTENTUATION RELATIONSHIPS FOR EUROPE

log ( PGA )=2.522−1.42 M W + ( 0.314 M W −3.184 ) log √ 57.76 +d 2 +0.137 S S + 0.050 S A−0.084 F N +0.062 F T −0.044

PGA is in m/se c 2

The coefficients S A and S S are given as

a function of the soil type. Fault Mechanism F N FT FO
Normal 1 0 0
Soil Shear Wave SA SS Odd 0 1 0
Type Velocity, v s (in m/s) Strike-Slip 0 0 0
Rock v s >750 0 0 Thrust 0 0 1
Stiff 360< v s ≤750 1 0
Soft 180< v s ≤360 0 1

ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS FOR JAPAN

log ( PGA )=0.446 M W −0.00350 d−log [ d+ ( 0.012 ) (10 )0.446 M ]+ 0.00665 ( h−20 )+ S
W

PGA is in cm/ se c 2 Soil Type Soil Coefficient (S)

Rock 0.751
The terms d and h are focal distance Hard Soil 0.901
and depth (in kms ), respectively. Medium
S is a coefficient depending on the 1.003
Soil
soil type. Soft Soil 0.995

9
 UNIT 5

ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS FOR NORTH AMERICA

Central and Eastern USA

[
ln ( PGA )=c1 +c 2 M W ∓c 3 ( M W −6 )2+ c 4 ln ( R M ) +c 5 max ln ( 70R ), 0]+ c R
6 M

PGA is in gals (g=cm/se c 2) and R is the epicentral distance

(in kms ) and M W is the moment
in which R M is the equivalent magnitude. The coefficients c i
distance term (in kms ): can be found in Fernandez
(2007).
R M =R+ c7 exp ( c 8 M W )

Western North America

2
log ( PGA )=b 1+ b2 ( M W −6 ) +b3 ( M W −6 ) +b 4 R+ b5 log ( R ) +b v ( log v S −log v A )

where R is the focal distance, Coefficients b i depend on the

with d the epicentral distance component of ground motion
and h the focal depth (in kms ): used.

R=√ d + h
2 2

For randomly-oriented horizontal components, the focal depth h=5.57 km

and v A =1400 .

log ( PGA )=−0.105+0.229 ( M W −6 )−0.778 log ( R )

−0.371 ¿

For larger horizontal components, the focal depth PGA is in gals ( g=cm/se c 2 ¿
h=5.57 km and v A =1390 km .

Soil Shear Wave

log ( PGA )=−0.038+0.216 ( M W −6 )−0.777 log ( R )
Type Velocity, v s (in m/s)
−0.364 ¿ v s >750
Class A
Class B 360< v s=750
Class C v s=360

10
 UNIT 5

World-Wide Attenuation Relationship

log ( PGA )=−0.659+0.202 M S−0.0238 d +0.020 S A +0.029 S S

PGA is in gals ( g=cm/se c 2 ¿

in which the epicentral distance d is in kms .

Coefficients S A and S S in the above equations account for the effects of soil
condition.

Soil Type Shear Wave Velocity, v s (in m/s) SA SS

Rock v S >750 0 0
Stiff 360< v S ≤ 750 1 0
Soft 180< v S ≤ 360 0 1
Very Soft v S ≤180 0 1

FEATURES OF STRONG-MOTION DATA FOR ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS

 All magnitudes should be uniformly calculated using consistent approaches.

 All distances have to be re-defined uniformly. It is necessary to use the
distance from the closest point on a causative fault on the measuring site,
not the epicentral distance.
 Deep knowledge of the local tectonic setting is required especially when
there is no surface manifestation of the fault.
 The data set should be well-populated and reasonably distribution in
magnitude, distance and soil condition. Otherwise, we will have a statistical
bias.
 Since the short and long period errors present in each record are unique for
each type of instrument and digitization procedure, and because of the
random nature of the errors, each accelerogram should ideally be corrected
individually. In simple words, it should be calibrated from time to time.
UNIT 6 (ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIPS)
GROUND MOTION PARAMETERS cont.
AND MODELS
FREQUENCY CONTENT PARAMETERS

11

These are important to be taken into
consideration because our structures
respond to different excitations or to
different ground motions. And when it
comes to the dynamic response of these
structures, it is very sensitive to the
frequency in which they are loaded. And
when we talk about frequencies, they are
representatives of the excitations of our
accelerograms. Definitely, whatever the
reading on that accelerogram, it has an
influence as to the response of our
structures.
 The dynamic response of buildings,
bridges, slopes or soil deposits is very
sensitive to the frequency at which they
are loaded.
 The frequency content describes how
the amplitude is distributed among
different frequencies. It follows the
concept of Fourier series, which
decomposes a function into series of
harmonics.
 The frequency content of an earthquake
motion will strongly influence the
effects of that motion.
FREQUENCY CONTENT PARAMETERS
(taken from amplitude parameters)
Ground Motion Spectra
Spectral Parameters
(taken from ground motion
spectra)
v max /a max
GROUND MOTION SPECTRA
 Any periodic function (i.e., any function
that repeats itself exactly at a constant
interval) can be expressed using Fourier
analysis as the sum of a series of simple
harmonic terms of different frequency,
amplitude and phase. Using the Fourier
series, a periodic function, x (t ) , can be
written as
12
UNIT 5
x (t )=c 0+ ∑ c n sin ( ωn t+ ϕn )
n=1
 In this form, c n and ϕ n, are the
amplitude and phase angle, respectively,
of the nth harmonic of the Fourier series.
The Fourier series provides a complete
description of the ground motion since
the motion can be completely recovered
by the inverse Fourier transform.
Ground Motion Spectra
Fourier Spectra
Power Spectra
Response Spectra
Effective Design Acceleration
FOURIER SPECTRA
 A plot of the Fourier amplitude versus
frequency (c n versus ω n) is known as a
Fourier amplitude spectrum; a plot of
Fourier phase angle (ϕ n versus ω n) gives
the Fourier phase spectrum.
 The Fourier amplitude spectrum of a
strong motion shows how the amplitude
of the motion is distributed with respect
to frequency (or period). It expresses
the frequency content of a motion very
clearly.
 The Fourier amplitude spectrum may be
narrow or broad.
 A narrow spectrum implies that the
motion has a dominant frequency (or
period), which can produce a smooth,
almost sinusoidal time-history.
 A broad spectrum corresponds to a
motion that contains a variety of
frequencies that produces a more
jagged, irregular time history.
 The jagged shapes of the spectra are
typical of those observed for individual
ground motions.
 The shapes of the spectra are quite
different: the Gilroy No. 1 (rock)

spectrum is strongest at low periods (or
high frequencies) while the reverse is
observed for the Gilroy No. 2 (soil)
record.
PICTURE
 A difference in frequency content can be
detected by closely examining the
motions in the time domain but the
difference is explicitly illustrated by the
Fourier amplitude spectra.
POWER SPECTRA
 The frequency content of a ground
motion can also be described by a
power spectrum or power spectral
density function.
 The power spectral density function can
also be used to estimate the statistical
properties of a ground motion and to
compute stochastic response using
random vibration techniques (Clough
and Penzien, 1975; Vanmarcke, 1976;
Yang, 1986).
 The power spectral density, G(ω ), is
defined as:
1 2
G ( ω) = c earthquake ground motions.
π Td n
T d=¿ ground motion duration
C n=¿ amplitude of the nth harmonic of
the
Fourier series of ground motion
RESPONSE SPECTRA
 A third type of spectrum is used
extensively in earthquake engineering
practice.
 The response spectrum described the
maximum response of a single-degree-
of-freedom (SDOF) system to a
particular input motion as a function of
13
UNIT 5
the natural frequency (or natural period)
and damping ratio of the SDOF system.
 Computed response spectra for the
Gilroy No. 1 (rock) and Gilroy No. 2 (soil)
records are illustrated in the figure
shown.
PICTURE
 At low frequencies, the average spectral
displacement is nearly constant: at high
frequencies, the average spectral
acceleration is fairly constant. In
between lies a range of nearly constant
spectral velocity. Because of this
behaviour, response spectra are often
divided into acceleration-controlled
(high-frequency), velocity-controlled
(intermediate-frequency), and
displacement-controlled (low-
frequency) portions.
 Elastic response spectra assume linear
structural force-displacement
behaviour.
 For many real structures, however,
inelastic behaviour may be induced by
 An inelastic response spectrum (i.e.,
one that corresponds to a nonlinear
force-displacement relationship), can be
used to account for the effects of
inelastic behaviour.
 Response spectra reflect strong ground
motion characteristics indirectly, since
they are “filtered” by the response of a
SDOF structure.
Factors Influencing Response Spectra:
 Magnitude
 Source mechanism and
characteristics
 UNIT 5

 Distance from the source of energy  Bandwidth: The bandwidth of the

release Fourier amplitude spectrum is the range
 Wave travel path of frequency over which some level of
 Rupture directivity Fourier amplitude is exceeded.
 Local geology and site conditions  Bandwidth is usually measured at the
level where the power of the spectrum
is half its maximum value; this
SPECTRAL PARAMETERS corresponds to a level of 1 √ 2 time the
Predominant Period maximum Fourier amplitude.
Bandwidth  The irregular shape of individual Fourier
Central Frequency amplitude spectra often renders
Shape Factor bandwidth difficult to evaluate. It is
Kanai-Tajimi Parameters determined more easily for smoothed
spectra.
 Predominant Period: A single parameter  The power spectral density function can
provides a useful, although somewhat be used to estimate statistical properties
crude presentation of the frequency of the ground motion.
content of a ground is the predominant  Central Frequency: Defining the nth
period T p. spectral moment of a ground motion by,
 The predominant period is defined as
the period corresponding to the ωN

maximum value of the Fourier λ n=∫ ω n G ( ω ) dω

0
amplitude spectrum.
 To avoid undue influence spikes of the the central frequency Ω (Vanmarcke,
Fourier amplitude spectrum, the 1976) is given by:

√
predominant period is often obtained
λ
from a smoothed spectrum. Ω= 2
λ0
 While the predominant period provides
some information regarding the
 The central frequency is a measure of
frequency content, it is easy to see that
the frequency where the power spectral
with radically different frequency
density is concentrated.
contents can have the same
 Shape Factor: The shape factor
predominant period.
(Vanmarcke, 1976) indicates the
 The predominant period can be used to
dispersion of the power spectral density
locate the peak of the Fourier amplitude
function about the central frequency
spectrum; however, it provides no
information on the dispersion of
spectral amplitudes
predominant period.
about the
δ= 1−
√
λ21
λ0 λ2

14

 The shape factor always lies between 0
and 1, with higher values corresponding
to larger bandwidths.
 Kanai-Tajimi Parameters: Although
individual power spectral density
functions may have highly irregular
shapes, averaging a number of
normalized power spectral density
functions for similar strong ground
motions reveals a smooth characteristic
shape. Kanai (1957) and Tajimi (1960)
used a limited number of strong motion
records to propose the following three-
parameter model for power spectral
density:
2
1+ [ 2 ξ g ( ω /ωg ) ]
G ( ω ) =G0
2 2
[ 1− ( ω /ω ) ] + [ 2 ξ ( ω/ω ) ]
g g
where the parameters G0 , ξ g , and ω g
determine the shape of the function.
 v max /a max: Because peak velocities and
peak accelerations are usually
associated with motions of different
frequency, the ratio v max /a max should be
related to the frequency content of the
motion (Newmark, 1973; Seed et al.,
1976; McGuire, 1978).
 For simple harmonic of period T , for
example v max /a max=T /2 π . For
earthquake motions that include many
frequencies, the quantity 2 π ( v max /amax )
can be interpreted as the period of
vibration of an equivalent harmonic
wave, thus providing an indication of
which periods of the ground motion are
most significant.
DURATION PARAMETERS
UNIT 5
 The duration of strong ground motion
can have a strong influence on
earthquake damage.
 Many physical processes, such as the
degradation of stiffness and strength of
certain types of structures and the
build-up of pore water pressures in
loose, saturated sands, are sensitive to
the number of load or stress reversals
that occur during an earthquake.
 A motion of short duration may not
produce enough load reversals for
damaging response to build up in a
structure, even if the amplitude of the
motion is high. On the other hand, a
motion with moderate amplitude but
long duration can produce enough load
2
g reversals to cause substantial damage.
 Different approaches have been taken to
the problem of evaluating the duration
of strong motion in an accelerogram.
 The bracketed duration (Bolt, 1969) is
defined as the time between the first
and last exceedances of a threshold
acceleration (usually 0.05g).
 Another definition of duration (Trifunac
and Brady, 1975b) is based on the time
interval between the points at which 5%
and 95% of the total energy has been
recorded (effective duration).
 Boore (1983) has taken the duration to
be equal to the corner period (i.e., the
inverse of the corner frequency).
 The rate of change of cumulative root-
mean-square (rms) acceleration has also
been used as the basis for evaluation of
strong-motion duration. (McCann and
Shah, 1979). Power spectral density
concepts can also be used to define a
15

strong-motion duration (Vanmarcke and
Lai, 1977).
 Other definitions of strong-motion
duration have been proposed (Perez,
1974; Trifunac and Westermo, 1977).
 Because it implicitly reflects the strength
of shaking, the bracketed duration is
most commonly used for earthquake
engineering purposes.
OTHER GROUND MOTION PARAMETERS
RMS Acceleration
Arias Intensity
Cumulative Absolute Velocity
Velocity Spectrum Intensity
Acceleration Spectrum Intensity
Effective Peak Acceleration
Effective Peak Velocity
 A single parameter that includes the
effects of the amplitude and frequency
content of a strong motion record is
the rms acceleration, defined as
√
Td
1 accelerogram:
∫
2
a rms =
Td 0
[ a ( t ) ] dt=√ λ0
where T d is the duration of the strong
motion and λ 0 is the average intensity
(or mean-squared acceleration)
 Because the integral in above equation
is not strongly influenced by large,
high-frequency accelerations (which
occur only over a very short period of
time) and because it is influenced by
the duration of the motion, the rms
acceleration can be very useful for
engineering purposes. Its value,
however, can be sensitive to the
method used to define the duration of
strong motion.
16
UNIT 5
 A parameter closely related to the rms
acceleration is the Arias Intensity
(Arias, 1970) defined as:
∞
π
I a= ∫ [ a ( t ) ] dt
2
2g 0
 The Arias intensity has unit of velocity
and is usually expressed in meters per
second.
 Since it is obtained by integration over
the entire duration rather than over the
duration of strong motion, its value is
independent of the method used to
define the duration of strong motion.
 The characteristic intensity is defined
as:
1.5 0.5
I c =arms T d
 It is related linearly to an index of
structural damage due to maximum
deformations and absorbed hysteretic
energy (Ang, 1990).
 The cumulative absolute velocity is
simply the area under the absolute
Td
CAV =∫|a ( t )|dt
0
 The cumulative absolute velocity has
been found to correlate well with
structural damage potential
 For example, a CAV of 0.0 .30 g−sec
(obtained after out frequencies
above10Hz) corresponds to the lower
limit for MM VII shaking (Benjamin and
Associates, 1988).
 Since many structures have
fundamentals periods between 0.1 and
2.5 sec, the response spectrum
ordinates in this period range should
provide an indication of the of the
potential response of these structures.
 UNIT 5

 The response spectrum intensity acceleration over the period 0.1 to 0.5
(Housner, 1959) was therefore defined sec divided by 2.5 (the standard
as amplification factor for a 5% damping
2.5
spectrum).
SI ( ξ )=∫ PSV ( ξ ,T ) dT
0.1
 The effective peak velocity (EPV) was
 It is the area under the pseudo velocity defined as the average spectral velocity
response spectrum between periods of at a period of 1 sec divided by 2.5
0.1 sec and 2.5 sec.  Determination of EPA and EPV is shown
 The response spectrum intensity, as schematically in the Figure.
indicated in above equation, can be  The process of averaging the spectral
computed for any structural damping accelerations and velocities over a range
ratio. It captures important aspects of of periods minimizes the influence of a
the amplitude and frequency content local spikes in the response spectrum on
(in the range of primary importance for the EPA and EPV.
structures) in a single parameter.  The EPA and EPV have been used in the
 Von Thun et al. (1988) referred to the specification of smoothed design
response spectrum intensity for 5% response spectra in building codes.
damping as the velocity spectrum
intensity. The velocity spectrum
intensity was suggested as being useful
for evaluation of the response of earth
and rockfill dams, which typically have
fundamental periods between 0.6 and
2.0 sec (Makdisi and Seed, 1978).
 To characterize strong ground motion
for analysis of concrete dams, which
generally have fundamental periods of
less than 0.5 sec, Von Thun et al. (1988)
introduced the acceleration spectrum
intensity, defined as
0.5
ASI =∫ Sa ( ξ=0.05 , T ) dt
0.1
(i.e., the area under the acceleration
response spectrum)

 The Applied Technology Council (1978)

defined two factors by which standard
response spectra could be normalized.
 The effective peak acceleration (EPA)
was defined as the average spectral

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