Pulses in ground motions identified through surface partial matching and their impact on seismic rocking consequence

In seismology and earthquake engineering,it is fundamental to identify and characterize the pulse-like features in pulse-type ground motions.To capture the pulses that dominate structural responses,this study establishes congruence and shift relationships between response spectrum surfaces.A similarity search between spectrum surfaces,supplemented with a similarity search in time series,has been applied to characterize the pulse-like features in pulse-type ground motions.The identified pulses are tested in predicting the rocking consequences of slender rectangular blocks under the original ground motions.Generally,the prediction is promising for the majority of the ground motions where the dominant pulse is correctly identified.

Identification of acceleration pulses in near-fault ground motion using the EMD method

In this paper, response spectral characteristics of one-, two-, and three-lobe sinusoidal acceleration pulses are investigated, and some of their basic properties are derived. Furthermore, the empirical mode decomposition （EMD） method is utilized as an adaptive filter to decompose the near-fault pulse-like ground motions, which were recorded during the September 20, 1999, Chi-Chi earthquake. These ground motions contain distinct velocity pulses, and were decomposed into high-frequency （HF） and low-frequency （LF） components, from which the corresponding HF acceleration pulse （if existing） and LF acceleration pulse could be easily identified and detected. Finally, the identified acceleration pulses are modeled by simplified sinusoidal approximations, whose dynamic behaviors are compared to those of the original acceleration pulses as well as to those of the original HF and LF acceleration components in the context of elastic response spectra. It was demonstrated that it is just the acceleration pulses contained in the near-fault pulse-like ground motion that fundamentally dominate the special impulsive dynamic behaviors of such motion in an engineering sense. The motion thus has a greater potential to cause severe damage than the far-field ground motions, i.e. they impose high base shear demands on engineering structures as well as placing very high deformation demands on long-period structures.

Near-fault ground motions with prominent acceleration pulses:pulse characteristics and ductility demand

Major earthquakes of last 15 years （e.g., Northridge 1994, Kobe 1995 and Chi-Chi 1999） have shown that many near-fault ground motions possess prominent acceleration pulses. Some of the prominent ground acceleration pulses are related to large ground velocity pulses, others are caused by mechanisms that are totally different from those causing the velocity pulses or fling steps. Various efforts to model acceleration pulses have been reported in the literature. In this paper, research results from a recent study of acceleration pulse prominent ground motions and an analysis of structural damage induced by acceleration pulses are summarized. The main results of the study include： （1） temporal characteristics of acceleration pulses; （2） ductility demand spectrum of simple acceleration pulses with respect to equivalent classes of dynamic systems and pulse characteristic parameters; and （3） estimation of fundamental period change under the excitation of strong acceleration pulses. By using the acceleration pulse induced linear acceleration spectrum and the ductility demand spectrum, a simple procedure has been developed to estimate the ductility demand and the fundamental period change of a reinforced concrete （RC） structure under the impact of a strong acceleration pulse.

Characteristics of near-fault ground motion containing velocity pulses

There are many reports about the research on near-fault velocity pulses, which focus on the generation of velocity pulse and simplify the velocity pulse so as to be used in the seismic design of structure, However few researches have put emphasis on the characteristics of near-fault ground motions containing velocity pulses, especially the characteristics relevant with the design response spectrum prescribed by the code. Through collection of a large number of near-fault records containing velocity pulses, the response spectra and the characteristic periods of records containing no pulses are compared with those of records containing pulses. Response spectra of near-fault records are compared with standard spectra given by code; furthermore, the response spectra and the characteristic periods of each earthquake are compared with that given by code. The result shows that at long periods （longer than 1.5 s）, the response spectrum of pulse-containing records is bigger than the response spectrum of no-pulse-containing records; when the characteristic period of near-fault records is calculated, the method that does not fix frequency is more reasonable because the T1 and T2 have a lagging tendency; regardless of the site Ⅰ and site Ⅱ, the characteristic period of pulse-containing records is over twice bigger than the characteristic period given by the code,

Intensity measures for the seismic response evaluation of buried steel pipelines under near-field pulse-like ground motions

Ground-motion Intensity Measures (IMs) are used to quantify the strength of ground motions and evaluate the response of structures. IMs act as a link between seismic demand and seismic hazard analysis and therefore, have a key role in performance-based earthquake engineering. Many studies have been carried out on the determination of suitable IMs in terms of effi ciency, suffi ciency and scaling robustness. The majority of these investigations focused on ordinary structures such as buildings and bridges, and only a few were about buried pipelines. In the current study, the optimal IMs for predicting the seismic demand of continuous buried steel pipelines under near-fi eld pulse-like ground motion records is investigated. Incremental dynamic analysis is performed using twenty ground motion records. Using the results of the regression analysis, the optimality of 23 potential IMs are studied. It is concluded that specifi c energy density (SED) followed by VSI[ω1(PGD+RMSd )] are the optimal IMs based on effi ciency, suffi ciency and scaling robustness for seismic response evaluation of buried pipelines under near-fi eld ground motions.

Dominant pulse simulation of near fault ground motions

In this study, a new mathematical model is developed composed of two parts, including harmonic and polynomial expressions for simulating the dominant velocity pulse of near fault ground motions. Based on a proposed velocity function, the corresponding expressions for the ground acceleration and displacement time histories are also derived. The proposed model is then fitted using some selected pulse-like near fault ground motions in the Next Generation Attenuation （NGA） project library. The new model is not only simple in form but also simulates the long-period portion of actual velocity near fault records with a high level of precision. It is shown that the proposed model-based elastic response spectra are compatible with the near fault records in the neighborhood of the prevailing frequency of the pulse. The results indicate that the proposed model adequately simulates the components of the time histories. Finally, the energy of the proposed pulse was compared with the energy of the actual record to confirm the compatibility.

Representation of near-fault pulse-type ground motions

Near-fault ground motions with long-period pulses have been identified as critical in the design of structures. To aid in the representation of this special type of motion, eight simple pulses that characterize the effects of either the flingstep or forward-directivity are considered. Relationships between pulse amplitudes and velocity pulse period for different pulses are discussed. Representative ratios and peak acceleration amplification can exhibit distinctive features depending on variations in pulse duration, amplitude and the selected acceleration pulse shape. Additionally, response spectral characteristics for the equivalent pulses are identified and compared in terms of fixed PGA and PGV, respectively. Response spectra are strongly affected by the duration of pulses and the shape of the basic pulses. Finally, dynamic time history response features of a damped SDOF system subjected to pulse excitations are examined. These special aspects of pulse waveforms and their response spectra should be taken into account in the estimation of ground motions for a project site close to a fault.

Study on equivalent velocity pulse of nearfault ground motions

Near-fault strong ground motions that resulted in serious structural damage are characterized by directivity effect and pulse-type motion. Large-amplitude and long-period pulses are contained in the velocity time-history traces of near-fault pulse-type records. A reasonable model of equivalent velocity pulse is proposed on the basis of the ex- isted models in this paper to simplify the calculation and analysis. Based on the large amount of collected near-fault strong earthquakes records, the parameters describing equivalent velocity pulse model such as pulse period, pulse intensity and number of predominant pulses are studied, and comparison is made with the results obtained by others models. The proposed model is contributive to the seismic design for structures in near-fault areas.

Near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motion effect on high-speed railway bridge

The vehicle-track-bridge(VTB)element was used to investigate how a high-speed railway bridge reacted when it was subjected to near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motions.Based on the PEER NAG Strong Ground Motion Database,the spatial analysis model of a vehicle-bridge system was developed,the VTB element was derived to simulate the interaction of train and bridge,and the elasto-plastic seismic responses of the bridge were calculated.The calculation results show that girder and pier top displacement,and bending moment of the pier base increase subjected to near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motion compared to far-field earthquakes,and the greater deformation responses in near-fault shaking are associated with fewer reversed cycles of loading.The hysteretic characteristics of the pier subjected to a near-fault directivity pulse-like earthquake should be explicitly expressed as the bending moment-rotation relationship of the pier base,which is characterized by the centrally strengthened hysteretic cycles at some point of the loading time-history curve.The results show that there is an amplification of the vertical deflection in the girder's mid-span owing to the high vertical ground motion.In light of these findings,the effect of the vertical ground motion should be used to adjust the unconservative amplification constant 2/3 of the vertical-to-horizontal peak ground motion ratio in the seismic design of bridge.

Relative energy zero ratio-based approach for identifying pulse-like ground motions

Pulse-like ground motions are capable of inflicting significant damage to structures. Efficient classification of pulse-like ground motion is of great importance when performing the seismic assessment in near-fault regions. In this study, a new method for identifying the velocity pulses is proposed, based on different trends of two parameters: the short-time energy and the short-time zero crossing rate of a ground motion record. A new pulse indicator, the relative energy zero ratio(REZR), is defined to qualitatively identify pulse-like features. The threshold for pulse-like ground motions is derived and compared with two other identification methods through statistical analysis. The proposed procedure not only shows good accuracy and efficiency when identifying pulse-like ground motions but also exhibits good performance for classifying records with high-frequency noise and discontinuous pulses. The REZR method does not require a waveform formula to express and fit the potential velocity pulses;it is a purely signal-based classification method. Finally, the proposed procedure is used to evaluate the contribution of pulse-like motions to the total input energy of a seismic record, which dramatically increases the seismic damage potential.

Simulation method of near-fault pulse-type ground motion

The two characteristics of near-fault ground motions, i.e., the forward directivity effect and permanent displacement effect, result in long period and large velocity pulse in the velocity time history and large step pulse in the displacement time history. Considering the two effects, a simple expression of continuous function for equivalent velocity pulse time history is presented in this paper. The equivalent pulse model, in which the pulse period, peak velocity and pulse shape are described by five parameters, is highly advantageous to fit and simulate the pulse-type velocity time history. The equivalent pulse model comprises only one low-frequency component while the high-frequency component of a pulse-type earthquake record cannot be considered. Based on 28 records of 11 earthquakes, the pulse frequency of pulse-type records is generally less than 1 Hz. Therefore the low-frequency component and high-frequency component are simulated respectively and combined them together to generate a pulse-type ground motion.

Seismic Reliability Assessment of Inelastic SDOF Systems Subjected to Near-Fault Ground Motions Considering Pulse Occurrence

The ground motions in the orientation corresponding to the strongest pulse energy impose more serious demand on structures than that of ordinary ground motions.Moreover,not all near-fault ground motion records present distinct pulses in the velocity time histories.In this paper,the parameterized stochastic model of near-fault ground motion with the strongest energy and pulse occurrence probability is suggested,and the Monte Carlo simulation(MSC)and subset simulation are utilized to calculate the first excursion probability of inelastic single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF)systems subjected to these types of near-fault ground motion models,respectively.Firstly,the influences of variation of stochastic pulse model parameters on structural dynamic reliability with different fundamental periods are explored.It is demonstrated that the variation of pulse period,peak ground velocity and pulse waveform number have significant effects on structural reliability and should not be ignored in reliability analysis.Then,subset simulation is verified to be unbiased and more efficient for computing small reliable probabilities of structures compared to MCS.Finally,the reliable probabilities of the SDOF systems with different fundamental periods subjected to impulsive,non-pulse ground motions and the ground motions with pulse occurrence probability are performed,separately.It is indicated that the ground motion model with the pulse occurrence probability can give a rational estimate on structural reliability.The impulsive and ordinary ground motion models may overestimate and underestimate the reliability of structures with fundamental period much less than the mean pulse period of earthquake ground motions.

Study on inelastic displacement ratio spectra for near-fault pulse-type ground motions

In displacement-based seismic design, inelastic displacement ratio spectra （IDRS） are particularly useful for estimating the maximum lateral inelastic displacement demand of a nonlinear SDOF system from the maximum elastic displacement demand of its counterpart linear elastic SDOF system. In this study, the characteristics of IDRS for near-fault pulse-type ground motions are investigated based on a great number of earthquake ground motions. The influence of site conditions, ratio of peak ground velocity （PGV） to peak ground acceleration （PGA）, the PGV, and the maximum incremental velocity （MIV） on IDRS are also evaluated. The results indicate that the effect of near-fault ground motions on IDRS are significant only at periods between 0.2 s - 1.5 s, where the amplification can approach 20%. The PGV/PGA ratio has the most significant influence on IDRS among the parameters considered. It is also found that site conditions only slightly affect the IDRS.

Amplification effect of near-field ground motion around deep tunnels based on finite fracturing seismic source model

Dynamic failure of rock masses around deep tunnels,such as fault-slip rockburst and seismic-induced collapse,can pose a significant threat to tunnel construction safety.One of the most significant factors that control the accuracy of its risk assessment is the estimation of the ground motion around a tunnel caused by seismicity events.In general,the characteristic parameters of ground motion are estimated in terms of empirical scaling laws.However,these scaling laws make it difficult to accurately estimate the near-field ground motion parameters because the roles of control factors,such as tunnel geometry,damage zone distribution,and seismic source parameters,are not considered.For this,the finite fracturing seismic source model(FFSSM)proposed in this study is used to simulate the near-field ground motion characteristics around deep tunnels.Then,the amplification effects of ground motion caused by the interaction between seismic waves and deep tunnels and corresponding control factors are studied.The control effects of four factors on the near-field ground motion amplification effect are analyzed,including the main seismic source wavelength,tunnel span,tunnel shape,and range of damage zones.An empirical formula for the maximum amplification factor(a_(m))of the near-field ground motion around deep tunnels is proposed,which consists of four control factors,i.e.the wavelength control factor(F_(λ)),tunnel span factor(F_(D)),tunnel shape factor(F_(s))and excavation damage factor(F_(d)).This empirical formula provides an easy approach for accurately estimating the ground motion parameters in seismicityprone regimes and the rock support design of deep tunnels under dynamic loads.

Prediction of near-field strong ground motions for scenario earthquakes on active fault

A method to predict near-field strong ground motions for scenario earthquakes on active faults is proposed. First, macro-source parameters characterizing the entire source area, i.e., global source parameters, including fault length, fault width, rupture area, average slip on the fault plane, etc., are estimated by seismogeology survey, seismicity and seismic scaling laws. Second, slip distributions characterizing heterogeneity or roughness on the fault plane, i.e., local source parameters, are reproduced/evaluated by the hybrid slip model. Finally, the finite fault source model, developed from both the global and local source parameters, is combined with the stochastically synthetic technique of ground motion using the dynamic comer frequency based on seismology. The proposed method is applied to simulate the acceleration time histories on three base-rock stations during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Comparisons between the predicted and recorded acceleration time histories show that the method is feasible and practicable.

Hybrid Slip Model for Near-Field Ground Motion Estimation Based on Uncertainty of Source Parameters

The hybrid slip model used to generate a finite fault model for near-field ground motion estimation and seismic hazard assessment was improved to express the uncertainty of the source form of a future earthquake.In this process, source parameters were treated as normal random variables, and the Fortran code of hybrid slip model was modified by adding a random number generator so that the code could generate many finite fault models with different dimensions and slip distributions for a given magnitude.Furth...

Traveling wave effect on the seismic response of a steel arch bridge subjected to near fault ground motions

In the 1990s, several major earthquakes occurred throughout the world, with a common observation that near fault ground motion （NFGM） characteristics had a distinct impact on causing damage to civil engineering structures that could not be predicted by using far field ground motions. Since then, seismic responses of structures under NFGMs have been extensively examined, with most of the studies focusing on structures with relatively short fundamental periods, where the traveling wave effect does not need to be considered. However, for long span bridges, especially arch bridges, the traveling wave （only time delay considered） effect may be very distinct and is therefore important. In this paper, the results from a case study on the seismic response of a steel arch bridge under selected NFGMs is presented by considering the traveling wave effect with variable apparent velocities. The effects of fling step and long period pulses of NFGMs on the seismic responses of the arch bridge are also discussed.

近远场地震下RC大跨轻柔拱桥减隔震支座方案优化

为探明不同地震动输入对某大跨轻柔拱桥减隔震的影响,通过非线性有限元模型分析近远场地震下桥梁结构的响应规律,得到大桥支座的优化布置方案.首先,基于模态分析,对比该桥与传统钢筋混凝土(RC)拱桥动力特性差异;其次,选取不同脉冲周期的近场地震动、近场无脉冲及远场长周期地震动记录;最后,研究近远场地震下拱桥的响应行为和损伤演化路径,得到优化桥梁的减隔震支座设计方案.研究结果表明:近场脉冲及远场长周期地震下的桥梁结构响应大于无脉冲地震响应;纵竖向地震下高墩柱剪力及弯矩包络曲线呈“S”形,墩身中部易形成塑性铰,高阶振型影响显著;桥梁纵桥向先于横向震损,损伤路径依次为矮柱、高墩柱及拱肋实心-空心截面段;摩擦摆支座减震效果最佳但位移较大,高阻尼支座方案在近场中长脉冲周期及远场长周期地震下仍会发生损伤,板式橡胶支座方案因无法保证支座同步滑移而不能形成准隔震体系;“高阻尼+摩擦摆”混合方案的支座位移小,拱肋及墩柱均处于弹性,是近断层大跨轻柔RC拱桥的优选减隔震方案.

近断层脉冲型地震动下调谐黏滞质量阻尼器减震结构易损性分析

选择典型脉冲型近断层地震动记录分别对一安装有调谐黏滞质量阻尼器(tuned viscous mass damper,TVMD)、黏滞阻尼器(viscous damper, VD)和无阻尼器的6层3跨钢框架结构进行增量动力分析,进而基于增量动力分析结果得到3种结构不同损伤状态的易损性曲线。易损性分析结果对比表明:随着惯容单元的引入,减震结构可靠性显著提升;相较于相同阻尼的VD,TVMD可以更有效地提升结构的抗震性能,减小结构在不同损伤状态下的失效概率。随着质量比的增加,TVMD减震结构在不同损伤状态下的失效概率减小,TVMD对结构性能状态的提升不会随非线性的增加而减小,且在结构经历弹性、弹塑性直至倒塌的整个过程中减震控制性能发挥稳定。进一步选取3组不同脉冲周期的近断层地震动记录对三种结构进行时程分析,讨论TVMD在不同脉冲周期近断层地震动下的减震控制效果。结果表明,在近断层脉冲型地震动作用下,TVMD并不都会实现阻尼单元“阻尼增效”,阻尼器的性能发挥与地震动的特性有关。相较于VD,当T_1/T_p≥2时,TVMD可以更好地减少结构能量输入但其能量耗散效率低于VD,不能实现“阻尼增效”;当T_1/T_p <2时,TVMD可以减小结构残余位移,具有更优的减少能量输入和增大能量耗散效率的双重效应,体现了惯容的“阻尼增效”。

近断层脉冲型地震作用下大跨拱桥动力响应分析

为了研究近断层脉冲型地震动的速度脉冲特性和参数对大跨拱桥动力响应的影响规律,首先引入分解叠加(record-decomposition incorporation,RDI)法合成人工近断层脉冲型地震动,对比研究了不同等效脉冲模型的准确性,进而优化和验证了合成方法;然后以某大跨拱桥为工程背景,采用优化后的RDI方法合成了具有不同参数特征的人工近断层地震动,探讨了脉冲成分与残余分量对拱桥动力响应的影响机制;最后研究了不同脉冲参数对拱桥动力响应的影响规律。研究表明:优化后的RDI合成方法能有效模拟原始近断层脉冲型地震动,并得到具有不同脉冲参数的人工地震动;近断层地震记录的高频成分对拱桥结构动力响应具有显著的不利影响;随着脉冲幅值的增大,向前方向性效应和滑冲效应对拱桥动力响应的影响均明显增大;随着脉冲周期的增大,两种脉冲效应对拱桥动力响应均有显著的不利影响;对于脉冲个数的影响,双向脉冲的近断层地震动相比多向脉冲会引起拱桥更大的面内响应。