Period 2.

Acceleration Records

QUANTIFYING STRONG
GROUND MOTION
Strong ground motion == earthquake-induced shaking
sufficient to cause deformation in soil and damage
to overlying structures

Ground motion (a.k.a. particle motion) can be quantified

In terms of acceleration, velocity or displacement

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 MEASUREMENT OF STRONG
GROUND MOTION
Features:
Measured with seismographs:
•Rotating helical drum
is fixed to the earth
•Mass and pen are suspended
by low-frequency spring or
pendulum
•Pen remains “stationary” due
to inertia; earth motion is
traced on the drum
•Seismographs come in sets
of 3 to measure 3 orthogonal
directions (N-S, E-W, vertical)

•Seismograph is a single-
degree-of-freedom (SDOF)
system
Output = f(displacement or acceleration)

Direct Measurement of
Particle Acceleration

• Typical accelerometers shown

• Voltage generated by pressure
• “Piezoelectric” behavior
• High resonant frequency due to high stiffness
• Flat response below resonant frequency

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 Direct Measurement of
Particle Velocity
• Typical low-frequency geophone shown
• Voltage generated by movement of suspended
coil past magnet
• Coil is “stationary” due to inertia while magnet
moves with the ground
• Voltage output is proportional to particle velocity
• Flat response above resonant frequency
• Use shunt resistance to flatten the response

Relationship between acceleration,

velocity and displacement

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Relationship between acceleration,
velocity and displacement

Attributes of Strong Ground Motion

• Peak Amplitude
• Affects levels of peak stress applied to buildings,
slopes, retaining structures, etc.

• Event Duration
• Affects fatigue-related behavior of structures and
plays an important role in soil liquefaction

• Spectral Content
• Related to resonance behavior of soil columns and
structures

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 Peak Amplitude
• Peak horizontal ground acceleration (PHGA)
• Peak vertical ground acceleration (PVGA)
• Peak horizontal ground velocity (PHGV)
• Peak vertical ground velocity (PVGV)

PHGA = 0.155 g

Event Duration
• Characterized as time interval between first
exceedance and last exceedance of PHGA of 0.05 g

In general,

Mw Duration (s)

5.0 4-8
6.0 8-16
7.0 16-32
8.0 31-62
Duration = 4.2 s

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 Event Duration in terms of
Arias Intensity

Duration = 25 s

Spectral Content
Consider a typical strong ground motion record:
0.3
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3
0 20 40 60
Time (seconds)

What frequencies are present in this ground motion?

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 Spectral Content
A time-domain record can be “dissected” into an infinite series
of harmonics using a Fourier Transform:

0.3
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)

0.30

0.2 0.25

Acceleration (g)
0.1 0.20

0.0 0.15

-0.1 0.10

-0.2 0.05

-0.3 0.00
0 20 40 60 0 5 10 15 20
Time (seconds) Frequency (Hz)

Time Domain Frequency Domain

Consider a SDOF system

spring, k

mass, m

dashpot, c

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 Now fill a room with different-sized
SDOF systems and shake the room…

large Tn small Tn

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2 3 4 5

0.3
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)

0.2

0.1 • Shake the room at the base

0.0 • Record the acceleration of each system
-0.1 • Plot acceleration versus Tn
-0.2
• Resulting plot is a response spectrum
-0.3
0 20 40 60
Time (seconds)

Response Spectrum
0.3
Horizontal Ground Acceleration (g)

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

-0.2
2.0
-0.3
0 20 40 60
Time (seconds)
Spectral Acceleration (g)

1.5

1.0
3

0.5 2
5 4
1
0.0
2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8
0.01 0.1 1 10
Resonant Period, Tn (s)

Response Spectrum

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 Comments Regarding the Response Spectrum

• The response spectrum provides insight to structural engineers regarding

how a structure with a given resonant period will behave when subjected to
a specific strong ground motion record

• A response spectrum is a “fingerprint” for the strong ground motion and every
strong ground motion record has a unique response spectrum

• The spectral acceleration values at short periods (0.01 s) will be approximately

equal to the PHGA on the time-domain record

• Short-period and long-period spectral acceleration values commonly used for

seismic design are defined as the spectral values at periods of 0.2 s and 1.0 s,
respectively.

Selection of Appropriate Strong

Ground Motion for a Region

• For a given location, we must select design strong ground motion

that has the appropriate spectral content

• Appropriate spectral content can be characterized in terms of a

Target Response Spectrum

• Strong ground motion record is also scaled according to the

appropriate peak shaking level

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 The Target Response Spectrum
Target Response Spectrum: the response spectrum that is
desirable for a given region. The response spectra of strong ground
motion used for the analysis should match the target response
spectrum reasonably well
Spectral Acceleration (g)

0.8
N 37.1 W 87.2 (somewhere in KY)
Sacramento, California
0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2
0.01 0.1 1
Resonant Period (s)

Typical target spectra for sites in California and Kentucky (Source: USGS)

Response Spectra and the

Target Response Spectrum
0.4
Mineral North-South
Mineral East-West
Horizontal Spectral Acceleration (g)

Greenbrier North-South
Greenbrier East-West
Bertrand North-South
Bertrand East-West
0.3 Average of the Six Spectra
USGS Target Spectrum

0.2

0.1

0.0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3
0.01 0.1 1
Period (s)

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 Sources for Target
Response Spectra Data
USGS Unified Hazard Tool:

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/interactive/

• 2014 database1 gives newer data but fewer spectral points

• 2008 database2 gives more points for target spectrum
• 2008 database allows use of Site Class A bedrock
• Both databases yield bedrock shaking corresponding
to a 2,475-year return period (per building code requirements)

1Petersen, M. D., Moschetti, M. P., Powers, P. M., Mueller, C. S., Haller, K. M., Frankel, A. D., Zeng, Y.,

Rezaeian, S., Harmsen, S. C., Boyd, O. S., Field, N., Chen, R., Rukstales,. K. H., Luco, N., Wheeler, R. L., Williams, R. A.
and Olsen, A. H., 2014, “Documentation for the 2014 Update of the United States, National Seismic Hazard Maps,”
Open File Report 2014-1091, United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

2Petersen, M. D., Frankel, A. D., Harmsen, S. C., Mueller, C. S., Haller, K. M., Wheeler, R. L., Wesson, R. L., Zeng, Y., Boyd,

O. S., Perkins, D. M., Luco, N., Field, E. H., Willis, C. J. and Rukstales,. K. H., 2008, “Documentation for the 2008 Update
of the United States, National Seismic Hazard Maps,” Open File Report 2008-1128, United States Geological Survey,
Reston, Virginia.

Sources of Strong
Ground Motion Data
National Strong Motion Project (NSMP):
https://escweb.wr.usgs.gov/nsmp-data/

• Provides pre-2014 SMC-formatted data

• Provides documentation on file format

Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data (CESMD):

https://strongmotioncenter.org/

• Provides newer SMC-formatted data

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 Reading SMC-Formatted Data

• Data type is in file name (a, v, d, f or r)

• Data header information is in lines 1-27

• Comment lines follow header (lines starting with “|”)

• Strong ground motion data follows the comments

• SMC data format description can be found at:

https://escweb.wr.usgs.gov/nsmp-data/smcfmt.html

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