Site specific response analysis for performance based design earthquake characteristics

During strong earthquakes, seismic waves travelling towards the ground surface alter the engineering characteristics of the soil layers and consequently the characteristics of travelling seismic waves also change with respect to their frequency and amplitude contents. In assessing the site-specific design earthquake characteristics in seismically active zones for performance levels of Collapse Prevention, Life Safety, and Immediate Occupancy that may correspond to 72, 475 and 2475 year return period earthquakes, detailed site characterization and site response analyses may be required. This process may be conducted in two consecutive statistically independent stages. The first stage involves the seismic hazard study to assess the design earthquake characteristics on rock outcrop for selected exceedance levels and the second stage involves detailed site characterization and site response analyses to estimate design earthquake characteristics on the ground surface. The uncertainties arising from the source characteristics need to be taken into account by using a representative number of strong motion acceleration records for site response analyses recorded in locations that are compatible with the seismic hazard with respect to fault mechanism, earthquake magnitude, and source distance. In addition, the strong motion acceleration records should be compatible with respect to peak acceleration and acceleration response spectra levels estimated by the probabilistic or deterministic seismic hazard study. One approach is to use the uniform acceleration hazard spectra and another option is to adopt conditional mean spectrum on rock outcrop estimated in the first stage from the earthquake hazard study for scaling input motions for site response analysis. It was observed that the scaling methodology adopted may play an important role in the calculated earthquake characteristics on the ground surface. A semi empirical procedure was proposed to determine the site specific design earthquake characteristics on the ground surface. A parametric study was conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology based on one dimensional site response analyses using Shake91 and DeepSoil site response codes to evaluate design earthquake characteristics on the ground surface.