CE-312

ENGINEERING GEOLOGY & SEISMOLOGY

Department of Civil Engineering, Campus III Bannu

University of Engineering & Technology Peshawar
 Outlines of the Presentation
1. Strong Ground Motion Parameters
• Amplitude parameters PHA, PHV and PHD.
• Frequency content parameters and Fourier Amplitude
Spectrum
• Strong ground motion duration parameters
2. Relationship between Amplitude Parameters & Intensity
3. Single Degree of Freedom Systems
4. Response Spectrum

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 Strong Ground Motion Parameters
▪ Strong ground motion parameters can be defined in three categories:

▪ Amplitude parameters
▪ Frequency content parameters
▪ Strong ground motion duration parameters

▪ Some of these parameters can describe only one characteristic feature of

a ground motion. While others may reflect two or three features at the
same time.

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 Amplitude Parameters
➢ Time history is the most common way
of describing a ground motion. The
time history of a ground motion can
be:
➢ Acceleration: shows a significant
proportion of relatively high
frequencies.
➢ Velocity: shows substantially less
high frequency motion than the
acceleration.
➢ Displacement: dominated by
relatively low frequency motion.
Earthquake Time history

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 Amplitude Parameters
Peak horizontal accelertaion (PHA)
Largest absolute value of horizontal acceleration obtained from an
accelerogram.

✓ Commonly used to describe ground motions as it is related to inertial

forces (for stiff structures, the largest induced dynamic force is related
to PHA).
✓ However, it does not provide any information on the frequency content
or duration of the motion. It must be considered as a supplemental
information.

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 Amplitude Parameters
Peak horizontal velocity (PHV)
Largest absolute value of horizontal velocity. (In general, for strong ground
motions, the velocity trace is obtained from an accelerogram).

✓ Less sensitive to higher-frequency components of the ground motion.

✓ PHV may provide a more accurate indication of structural damage
than PHA at intermediate frequencies.

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 Amplitude Parameters
Peak horizontal displacement (PHD)
Largest absolute value of horizontal displacement obtained from an
accelerogram. (In general, for strong ground motions, the displacement trace
is obtained from an accelerogram).

✓ Generally associated with the lower-frequency components of an

earthquake motion.
✓ Very difficult to determine accurately due to signal processing
assumptions. Thus, not a common tool for ground motion
measurement.

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 Amplitude Parameters
Amplitude Parameters-Others
These definitions relate the structural damage with a repeated number of high
amplitude ground motion traces. The high amplitude and very high frequency
PHA does not always indicate the structural damage.

Sustained maximum acceleration and velocity (Nuttli, 1979)

Effective design acceleration (Kennedy, 1980; Benjamin & Assoc., 1988)

The third or fifth highest peak in the acceleration or velocity trace,

respectively.

The peak acceleration that remains after filtering out the acceleration
trace above 8 to 9 Hz.

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 Frequency Content Parameters

▪ The dynamic response of structural systems, facilities and soil is very

sensitive to the frequency content of the ground motions.

▪ The frequency content describes how the amplitude of a ground motion is

distributed among different frequencies.

▪ The frequency content strongly influences the effects of the motion. Thus,
the characterization of the ground motion cannot be complete without
considering its frequency content.

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)

For any given time series, g(t), the Fourier spectrum is:

For a finite duration, td

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)

The Fourier amplitude is:

The Fourier Phase angle is:

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)
▪ The plot of Fourier amplitude versus frequency is known as a Fourier
amplitude spectrum. A plot of Fourier phase angle versus frequency gives
Fourier phase spectrum.

▪ Fourier amplitude spectrum of a strong ground motion expresses the

frequency content of a motion very clearly.

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)
It can be concluded that the ground motions can be expressed as a sum of
harmonic (sinosoidal) waves with different frequencies and arrivals (phases).
The Fourier amplitude spectrum (FAS) is capable of displaying these
frequencies (i.e. the frequency content of the ground motion).

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 Frequency Content Parameters
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (Contd…)

Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (FAS) Narrow or Broadband

Implies that the motion has a Corresponds to a motion that

dominant frequency (period) consists of frequencies that
that can produce a smooth, produce a more jagged irregular
almost sinusoidal time history. time history.

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 Duration Parameters
Duration of strong ground motion plays an important role as amplitude and
frequency content parameters in seismic hazard assessment.

▪ Its is important for the response of foundation materials as the build up of

pore water pressure and essentially the liquefaction is strongly dependent
on duration.

▪ Its important for relatively weak and short period structures as their
inelastic deformations are strongly dependent on duration (Mahin, 1980).

▪ Its important for any structure with stiffness and strength degrading
characteristics.

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 Duration Parameters
Strong ground motion duration is related to the earthquake magnitude.

▪ For EQUAL ACCELERATIONS, greater duration is generally more

damaging.
▪ For EQUAL ENERGY, shorter duration presents more hazard.

In this figure, both ground motions reach to the

same amount of energy but Ms = 5.4 event
reaches this level rapidly imposing greater
demands for energy dissipation and causing
more severe damage than the Ms = 7.3 event.

Therefore, one should be very careful while

defining the strong motion duration.

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 Duration Parameters
Definitions for Strong Ground Motion Duration

▪ Bracketed durations (Db):

Total time elapsed between the first and last excursions of a specified level
of acceleration, ao.

▪ Uniform durations (Du):

Defined by a threshold level of acceleration, ao but not as an interval
between the first and final peaks that exceed this level. It is the sum of
the time intervals during which the acceleration is greater than the
threshold.

▪ Significant durations (Ds):

Based on the accumulation of energy in the accelerogram represented
by the integral of the ground acceleration, velocity, or displacement. If
integral is of ground acceleration then the quantity is related to Arias
Intensity.

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 Duration Parameters
Which Definition Corresponds to Strong Ground Motion Duration?

▪ The bracketed and uniform durations are highly sensitive to the threshold
level.

▪ The significant duration definitions are based on the energy in the record
and the threshold level does not have a significant influence. Thus, the
strong motion duration based on significant duration is more relevant for
the seismic hazard assessment.

A well-known significant duration

definition:

The interval between the times at which

5% and 95% of the total integral is
attained (Trifunac and Brady, 1975).

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 Relationship between Amplitude & Intensity
Peak horizontal accelertaion (PHA) & Intensity
PHA was related to earthquake intensity by various reserchers. The results of
a recent study is shown below:

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 Relationship between Amplitude & Intensity
Peak horizontal velocity (PHV) & Intensity
Relationship between the earthquake intensity and PHV:

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 Relationship between Amplitude & Intensity
Shake Maps:
The relations between the ground motion amplitude parameters and intensity
can be used for a rapid response to picture the extent and variation of ground
shaking throughout a well-instrumented, seismic-prone region.

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 Relationship between Amplitude & Intensity
Shake Maps (Contd…)
Note:
▪ The evaluation of these maps should be exercised with caution due to
very large dispersion on the computed regression equations.

▪ Such relationships should only serve for a rapid (preliminary) detection of

the earthquake extent.

▪ These relationships should not be used to estimate the PHA or PHV

values.

▪ One shortcoming of Shake Maps is that they need a dense array for the
computation of peak ground motion amplitudes. For regions where the
instrumentation is scarce, the shake map is produced through ground
motion prediction equations that should be chosen very carefully to reflect
the seismicity of the region.

For more information: http://www.shakemap.org

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 Single Degree of Freedom Systems
SDOF Systems are defined such that their vibration characteristics can be
represented by a single displacement variable called “degree of freedom”.

There are three characteristics of SDOF Systems:

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 Single Degree of Freedom Systems
Mass creates a resistance against the change of velocity (acceleration). This
resistance is called inertia.

Stiffness creates a resistance against change of position (displacement). This

resistance is called the restoring force.

Damping creates a resistance against the change of displacement (velocity). This

resistance is called the internal friction, or the damping force.
When a system is disturbed from its equilibrium position, it starts vibrating but the
vibration steadily diminishes and the system comes to rest. The process by which free
vibration steadily diminishes in amplitude is called damping.

Damping ratio ( ) it is a measure of this energy loss due to damping. If =1 (100%),
it is called critical damping ratio which is the level of damping that will restore a system
to its at rest position without vibrations e.g. If you pull the mass (M) of SDOF System
to left side and then leave it. It will come to its original straight position and will not go
to the right side. However, for structures of engineering interest <1 (usually from 5 to
20%). For reinforced concrete structures it is usually assumed that the damping ratio
is 5%.

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 Single Degree of Freedom Systems
Equation of Motion

Any SDOF System can be represented by its mass, stiffness and damping.
When an external dynamic force P(t) is applied, it creates a motion u(t) along
the dynamic degree of freedom. Mass, stiffness and damping mechanisms of
a SDOF Systems develop resistance against P(t), in proportion to the
displacement, acceleration and velocity respectively.

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 Single Degree of Freedom Systems

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 Single Degree of Freedom Systems

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The End