A Ground-Motion Prediction Equation for the Western and the Southwestern Parts of China Based on Local Strong-Motion Records and an Overseas Reference Model for the Vertical Component

Author(s):  
Hao Xing ◽  
John X. Zhao

ABSTRACT A ground-motion prediction equation for the vertical ground motions from the western and the southwestern parts of China (referred to as SWC) is presented in this study. Based on the Xing and Zhao (2021) study, the Zhao et al. (2017) model (referred to as ZHAO2017) for the shallow crustal earthquakes in Japan was used as the reference model. We used a bilinear magnitude-scaling function hinged at a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.1. The magnitude-scaling rate for events with Mw>7.1 was determined by records from the SWC dataset and the large events in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center Next Generation Attenuation-West2 dataset. Site classes (SCs) were used as the site response proxy. All other parameters were derived from the SWC dataset only. The magnitude-scaling rates for events with Mw≤7.1 in this study are larger than in the ZHAO2017 model at most periods. The absolute values of the geometric attenuation rates are larger, and the absolute values of the anelastic attenuation rates are smaller than in the ZHAO2017 model. The between-event standard deviations are smaller than in the ZHAO2017 model at short periods, and the within-event standard deviations are larger than in the ZHAO2017 model at all periods. The differences in the between-site standard deviations vary significantly from one SC to another. We also find that the between-event and within-event residuals are almost independent of magnitude and source distance. The response spectrum attenuates less rapidly than in the ZHAO2017 model at distances less than 30 km.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 1331-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van-Bang Phung ◽  
Chin Hsiung Loh ◽  
Shu Hsien Chao ◽  
Norman A Abrahamson

A ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) is presented for computing the median and standard deviation of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5% damped pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) for periods between 0.01 s and 5.0 s for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) and engineering applications in Taiwan. An integrated strong motion dataset consisting of two subduction earthquake regions was selected from 3314 recordings from Taiwan with M4.5 to M7.1 and 3376 recordings from Japan with M6.5 to M9.1. This dataset was then used to validate, and refit where necessary, the function form provided by Abrahamson et al. for application to Taiwan subduction earthquakes. The proposed model accounts for the extrapolation behaviors associated with the large-magnitude scaling and the near-source scaling terms, both of which were developed empirically by using the combined Taiwan–Japan dataset. The distance attenuation and site term were developed specifically for the Taiwan region. The site term is based on two parameters; the time-averaged shear wave velocity of the top 30 m depth ( VS30) and the depth-to-the-shear wave velocity horizon of 1.0 km/s ( Z1.0).


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 2129-2164
Author(s):  
Van-Bang Phung ◽  
Chin Hsiung Loh ◽  
Shu Hsien Chao ◽  
Brian SJ Chiou ◽  
Bor-Shouh Huang

We develop a ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) for estimating horizontal ground motion amplitudes caused by crustal earthquakes, based on an integrated data set that includes strong motion recordings mainly from Taiwan earthquakes and only from large magnitude earthquakes in the NGA-West2 database. This GMPE is developed for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis study, which is introduced as a part of Taiwan Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee Level 3 projects. The functional form developed by Chiou and Youngs was carefully studied to determine the key modeling parameters needed to regress against ground motion in the target region. Using this functional form, the GMPE achieves considerable improvement over previously developed Taiwan GMPEs. In particular, the use of a high-order function in magnitude scaling enables representation of the saturation effects of large earthquakes. Moreover, consideration of focal mechanisms, depth effects, and dip effects are used to correct the magnitude scaling; consideration of nonlinear site amplification is conditioned on VS30 and reference ground motion on rock; and consideration of basin depth effect is a function of Z1.0 in correlation with VS30. In addition, ground motion data used in this study are not only expanded by more than three times as many earthquakes and records compared with a previous Taiwan model but also provide the metadata of these records that were not available or were previously incomplete. In this study, we compare the proposed model with the NGA-West2 models and discuss the regional difference in ground motion in terms of spectral shape, magnitude scaling, distance scaling, depth scaling, style of faulting, and site effects. We provide median and single standard deviations of peak ground acceleration and 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration response ordinates of the orientation-independent average horizontal component of ground motion (RotD50) for the spectral period of 0.01–10 s.


2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behrooz Tavakoli ◽  
Shahram Pezeshk

A derivative-free approach based on a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) is proposed to estimate a mixed model–based ground motion prediction equation (attenuation relationship) with several variance components. First, a simplex search algorithm (SSA) is used to reduce the search domain to improve the convergence speed. Then, a genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to obtain the regression coefficients and the uncertainties of a predictive equation in a unified framework using one-stage maximum-likelihood estimation. The proposed HGA results in a predictive equation that best fits a given ground motion data set. The proposed HGA is able to handle changes in the functional form of the equation. To demonstrate the solution quality of the proposed HGA, the regression coefficients and the uncertainties of a test function based on a simulated ground motion data set are obtained. Then, the proposed HGA is applied to fit two functional attenuation forms to an actual data set of ground motion. For illustration, the results of the HGA are compared with those used by previous conventional methods. The results indicate that the HGA is an appropriate algorithm to overcome the shortcomings of the previous methods and to provide reliable and stable solutions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 875529302095244
Author(s):  
Shu-Hsien Chao ◽  
Che-Min Lin ◽  
Chun-Hsiang Kuo ◽  
Jyun-Yan Huang ◽  
Kuo-Liang Wen ◽  
...  

We propose a methodology to implement horizontal-to-vertical Fourier spectral ratios (HVRs) evaluated from strong ground motion induced by earthquake (EHVRs) or ambient ground motion observed from microtremor (MHVRs) individually and simultaneously with the spatial correlation (SC) in a ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) to improve the prediction accuracy of site effects. We illustrated the methodology by developing an EHVRs-SC-based model which supplements Vs30 and Z1.0 with the SC and EHVRs collected at strong motion stations, and a MHVRs-SC-based model that supplements Vs30 and Z1.0 with the SC and MHVRs observed from microtremors at sites which were collocated with strong motion stations. The standard deviation of the station-specific residuals can be reduced by up to 90% when the proposed models are used to predict site effects. In the proposed models, the spatial distribution of the predicted station terms for peak ground acceleration (PGA) from MHVRs at 3699 sites is consistent with that of the predicted station terms for PGA from EHVRs at 721 strong motion stations. Prediction accuracy for stations with inferred Vs30 is similar to that of stations with measured Vs30 with the proposed models. This study provides a methodology to simultaneously implement SC and EHVRs, or SC and MHVRs in a GMPE to improve the prediction accuracy of site effects for a target site with available EHVRs or MHVRs information.


Author(s):  
Hao Xing ◽  
John X. Zhao

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the source, path, and site effects of the vertical ground motions from the western and the southwestern parts of China (referred to as SWC hereafter) using 2403 records from 449 earthquakes, including the records from the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake and its aftershocks. Only 677 records are from 73 mainshocks, and 259 events do not have a known focal mechanism. There is a large magnitude gap in the dataset, for example, there is only one event between Mw 6.3 and Mw 7.8. The average numbers of records per recording station and per earthquake are small, and many sites do not have a measured shear-wave velocity profile. These shortcomings make it difficult to develop a robust ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) without adding overseas data or using a reference GMPE developed from a large dataset. We compared the SWC dataset with five recent GMPEs, three based on the Next Generation Attenuation-West2 dataset, one based on Europe and the Middle East, and one based on the shallow-crustal and upper-mantle earthquakes in Japan. We decomposed the total residuals for each model into constant term, between-event, and within-event residuals and calculated the corresponding standard deviations. The maximum log likelihood and the standard deviations suggest that, among the five GMPEs, the Zhao et al. (2017) model without the normal-fault term may be the most suitable GMPE for a probabilistic seismic hazard study in the SWC region. Correction functions based on simple magnitude, path, and site effect parameters were used to correct the residuals and to obtain the leftover between- and within-event standard deviations. These standard deviations appear to suggest that the GMPE from Zhao et al. (2017) without a normal-fault term may be the most suitable reference GMPE for developing a new GMPE for the SWC region.


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