Seismic ground motion variations resulting from site conditions

Amplification of seismic ground motions in the territory of Almaty city is evaluated by using different methods. The pattern and probable causes of ground motion variations in different engineering-geological conditions are characterized. An expeditious application of these techniques within a complex methodical approach for Almaty city microzonation is considered.

Numerical Green’s function method:Application to quantifying ground motion variations of M7 earthquakes

The concept of ＂numerical Green’s functions＂ （NGF or Green’s function database） is developed. The basic idea is： a large seismic fault is divided into subfaults of appropriate size, for which synthetic Green’s functions at the surface （NGF） are calculated and stored. Consequently, ground motions from arbitrary kinematic sources can be simulated, rapidly, for the whole fault or parts of it by superposition. The target fault is a simplified, vertical model of the Newport-Inglewood fault in the Los Angeles basin. This approach and its functionality are illustrated by investigating the variations of ground motions （e.g. peak ground velocity and synthetic seismograms） due to the source complexity. The source complexities are considered with two respects： hypocenter location and slip history. The results show a complex behavior, with dependence of absolute peak ground velocity and their variation on source process directionality, hypocenter location, local structure, and static slip asperity location. We concluded that combining effect due to 3-D structure and finite-source is necessary to quan- tify ground motion characteristics and their variations. Our results will facilitate the earthquake hazard assessment projects.

Variational Principle of Instability of Atmospheric Motions

Problems of instability of rotating atmospheric motions are investigated by using nonlinear governing equations and the variational principle. The method suggested in this paper is universal for obtaining criteria of instability in all models with all possible basic flows. For example, the model can be barotropic or baroclinic, layer or continuous, quasi-geostrophic or primitive equations; the basic flow can be zonal or nonzonal, steady or unsteady.Although the basic flows possess a great deal of variety, they all are the stationary points in the functional space determined by an appropriate invariant functional. The basic flow is an unsteady one if the conservation of angular momentum is included in the associated functional.The second variation, linear or nonlinear, gives the criteria of instability. Especially, the general criteria of instability for unsteady basic flow, orographically disturbed flow as well as nongeostrophic flow are first obtained by the method described in this paper.It is also shown that the difference between the criteria of instability obtained by the linear theory and our variational principle clearly indicates the importance of using nonlinear governing equations.In the appendix the theory is extended to cases such as in a β-plane where the fluid does not possess finite total energy, hence the variational principle can not be directly applied. However, a generalized Liapbunoff norm can still be obtained on the basis of variational consideration.

RELATIVISTIC VARIATION PRINCIPLES AND EQUATION OF MOTION FOR VARIABLE MASS CONTROLLABLE MECHANICAL SYSTEM

With classical variable mass and relativistic variable mass cases being considered.the relativistic D' Alembert principles of Lagrange form Nielsen form and Appell. form for variable mass controllable mechanical system are given the relativistic Chaplygin equation. Nielsen equation and Appell equation .for variable mass controllable mechanical system in quasi-coordinates and generalized- coordinates are obtained, and the equations of motion of relativistic controllable mechanical system for holonomic system and constant mass system are diseussed

Comments on Zeng's Paper “Variational Principle of Instability of Atmospheric Motions”

After my paper (Zeng, 1986b) was published and another (Zeng, 1989) was submitted to the journal, I found two papers written by Arnold (1966) and McIntyre et al. (1987) and received some reprints of Ripa’s papers (1983; 1984; 1987; 1988) in the same field. I thank Drs. Mu Mu and Pedro Ripa very much for showing and sending me these interesting papers.

Simulation of multi-support depth-varying earthquake ground motions within heterogeneous onshore and offshore sites

This paper presents a novel approach to model and simulate the multi-support depth-varying seismic motions（MDSMs） within heterogeneous offshore and onshore sites.Based on 1 D wave propagation theory,the three-dimensional ground motion transfer functions on the surface or within an offshore or onshore site are derived by considering the effects of seawater and porous soils on the propagation of seismic P waves.Moreover,the depth-varying and spatial variation properties of seismic ground motions are considered in the ground motion simulation.Using the obtained transfer functions at any locations within a site,the offshore or onshore depth-varying seismic motions are stochastically simulated based on the spectral representation method（SRM）.The traditional approaches for simulating spatially varying ground motions are improved and extended to generate MDSMs within multiple offshore and onshore sites.The simulation results show that the PSD functions and coherency losses of the generated MDSMs are compatible with respective target values,which fully validates the effectiveness of the proposed simulation method.The synthesized MDSMs can provide strong support for the precise seismic response prediction and performance-based design of both offshore and onshore large-span engineering structures.

A coherency function model of ground motion at base rock corresponding to strike-slip fault

At present, the method to study spatial variation of ground motions is statistic analysis based on dense array re-cords such as SMART-1 array, etc. For lacking of information of ground motions, there is no coherency function model of base rock and different style site. Spatial variation of ground motions in elastic media is analyzed by deterministic method in this paper. Taking elastic half-space model with dislocation source of fault, near-field ground motions are simulated. This model takes strike-slip fault and earth media into account. A coherency func-tion is proposed for base rock site.

Reference-driven method for MR image reconstruction based on wavelet sparsity and nonlocal total variation

A novel reference-driven method for MR image reconstruction based on wavelet sparsity and nonlocal total variation（NLTV）is proposed.Utilizing the sparsity of the difference image between the target image and the motion-compensated reference image in wavelet transform domain,the proposed method does not need to estimate contrast changes and therefore increases computational efficiency.Additionally,NLTV regularization is applied to preserve image details and features without blocky effects.An efficient alternating iterative algorithm is used to estimate motion effects and reconstruct the difference image.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly reduce sampling rate or improve the quality of the reconstructed image alternatively.

Generation of endurance time excitation functions using spectral representation method

In this study,application of the spectral representation method for generation of endurance time excitation functions is introduced.Using this method,the intensifying acceleration time series is generated so that its acceleration response spectrum in any desired time duration is compatible with a time-scaled predefined acceleration response spectrum.For this purpose,simulated stationary acceleration time series is multiplied by the time dependent linear modulation function,then using a simple iterative scheme,it is forced to match a target acceleration response spectrum.It is shown that the generated samples have excellent conformity in low frequency,which is useful for nonlinear endurance time analysis.In the second part of this study,it is shown that this procedure can be extended to generate a set of spatially correlated endurance time excitation functions.This makes it possible to assess the performance of long structures under multi-support seismic excitation using endurance time analysis.

New Solution for the Earth’s Free Wobble and Its Geophysical Implications

In this paper, the theory of the free wobble of the triaxial Earth is developed and new conclusions are drawn: the Euler period should be actually expressed by the first kind of complete elliptic integral; the trace of the free polar motion is elliptic and the orientations of its semi-minor and major axes are approximately parallel to the Earth's principal axes A and B, respectively. In addition, the present theory shows that there is a mechanism of frequency-amplitude modulation in the Chandler wobble, which might be a candidate for explaining the correlation between the amplitude and period of the Chandler wobble.