EARTHQUAKE RECORDS
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REPRESENTATIVE ENSEMBLES OF STRONG EARTHQUAKE RECORDS |
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Nove Naumoski |
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Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering |
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University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario |
| INTRODUCTION |
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Since the first set of strong motion records obtained during the Long Beach, California earthquake of 1933, thousands of strong earthquakes records have been recorded in seismic regions around the world. Many of these records have been used by earthquake engineers for the investigations of the characteristics of earthquake ground motions, investigations of the behaviour of structures due to seismic excitations, evaluations of the seismic codes, and for the design of earthquake resistant structures. |
| It has been observed that the characteristics of recorded motions vary greatly from record to record. The intensity, the duration of strong shaking, and the frequency content of the records depend on a number of factors including the magnitude of the earthquake, the epicentral distance, and the local site conditions. The differences in the characteristics of the recorded ground motions can lead to substantial differences in the structural response. One major factor that has significant effects on the structural response is the frequency content of the recorded motions. A simple approach based on the peak ground acceleration to peak ground velocity ratio (A/V ratio) is commonly accepted for the estimation of the frequency content of earthquake records (Heidebrecht and Lu, 1988). Statistically, records with high A/V ratios are normally associated with moderate to strong earthquakes at small epicentral distances, and records with low A/V ratios are associated with large earthquakes at large epicentral distances. |
SELECTED ENSEMBLES OF RECORDS |
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For the purpose of research studies, Naumoski at al. (1988) selected three ensembles of recorded accelerograms with different A/V ratios, i.e. accelerograms with high A/V ratios (A/V > 1.2), with intermediate A/V ratios (0.8 < A/V <1.2), and with low A/V ratios (A/V < 0.8), where A is in g, and V is in m/s. Each ensemble consists of 15 accelerograms. With respect to the A/V ratios, the ensembles are referred to as high, intermediate, and low A/V ensembles. Information for the accelerograms of the three ensembles are listed in Tables 1, 2, and 3. The mean A/V ratio is 2.12 for the high A/V ensemble, 1.02 for the intermediate A/V ensemble, and 0.6 for the low A/V ensemble. All the selected accelerograms are recorded on rock or stiff soil sites. Of the 45 accelerograms, 29 are from the United States, 7 from Japan, 5 from Mexico, 3 from Former Yugoslavia, and 1 from Canada. |
| USE OF THE RECORDS |
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The acceleration records posted on this web site have been extensively used in the past in various research studies and practical applications. A number of studies related to the seismic provisions of the current edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 1995) have been conducted using these records. |
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The demand for earthquake accelerograms increases with the improvements in the codes and the design practice. These accelerograms are used as excitation motions in dynamic time history analyses. It is believed that the use of earthquake accelerograms will increase significantly with the release of the new edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 2005). The seismic provisions of NBCC 2005 require the use of dynamic analysis as the primary procedure in the design of buildings. The Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code also requires the use of dynamic time history analysis in the design of more important and complex bridges. Depending on the objectives of the studies, proper scaling should be conducted to the accelerograms. Some scaling methods for accelerograms for use in the analysis of building structures are given in Naumoski et al. (2004). |
| REFERENCES |
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Heidebrecht, A.C., and Lu, C.Y. 1988. Evaluation of the seismic response factor introduced in the 1985 edition of the National Building Code of Canada. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 15: 382-338. Naumoski, N., Tso, W.K., and Heidebrecht, A.C. 1988. A selection of representative strong motion earthquake records having different A/V ratios. Earthquake Engineering Research Group, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., EERG Report 88-01, 60 pp. Naumoski, N., Saatcioglu, M., and Amiri-Hormozaki, K. 2004. Effects of Scaling of earthquake excitations on the dynamic response of reinforced concrete frame buildings. 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, paper No. 2917, 15 pp.
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Table 1. Description and peak ground motion parameters for “High A/V Records” [A/V > 1.2] |
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Table 2. Description and peak ground motion parameters for “Intermediate A/V Records” [0.8<A/V<1.2] |
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Table 3. Description and peak ground motion parameters for “Low A/V Records” [A/V < 0.8] |
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