SCEC Award Number 14219 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title VALIDATION OF SIMULATED GROUND MOTIONS BASED ON EVOLUTION OF INTENSITY AND FREQUENCY CONTENT
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Farzin Zareian University of California, Irvine Sanaz Rezaeian United States Geological Survey
Other Participants
SCEC Priorities 6e SCEC Groups GMSV, Simulators, EEII
Report Due Date 03/15/2015 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 We have developed a new goodness of fit methodology to assess the validity of simulated ground motions (GMs) against real GMs that were recorded during past earthquakes. The proposed methodology considers fundamental characteristics of GM waveforms that have specific shapes and amplitudes in time-domain and frequency-domain. We have utilized the proposed goodness of fit methodology to assess the validity of few sets of simulations including Graves and Pitarka (2010) and Broadband Platform simulations (Version 13.5) of five historic events (i.e., NR, LP, NP, WH, LA) by three simulation methodologies (i.e., GP, CSM, SDSU). We have identified differences between simulations and recordings in strong motion duration and rate of input energy.
Intellectual Merit This research aims at validating ground motion simulation models, and hence improving our confidence in such models, by formulating a standard for comparing simulated and recorded ground motions. The proposed validation standard takes advantage of current state-of-knowledge in waveform analysis and its correlation to structural response.
Broader Impacts Current ground motion simulation models are physics-based and have the advantage of representing fault rupture processes, wave propagation, and site response characterization. The main point of this research is to validate these models and make their future application more reliable. The impact of this research is quite significant across a wide range of Earthquake Engineering concerns and can lead to betterment of resilience of buildings during hazards such as earthquakes.
Exemplary Figure Figure 7. Box plots of I_a / D_{5-95} for records from the BBP simulation of Northridge earthquake.