A new procedure for processing strong-motion earthquake signals

Abstract

Abstract A new procedure for routinely processing strong-motion earthquake signals using state-of-the-art filter design and implementation techniques is presented. The model, shown to be both accuratet and efficient, is sufficiently flexible so that the signal sampling period and filter parameters can be easily varied. A comparison of results from the existing United States model (Trifunac and Lee, 1973) and the proposed model show significant differences in the ground motion and response spectrum characteristics for the same set of filter limits. Drifts in integrated velocity and displacement characteristics and theoretically incorrect asymptotic behavior of response spectrum curves arising out of the existing United States processing scheme have been eliminated. In addition to the importance of appropriately selecting a low-frequency limit for band-pass filtering the signals, this work demonstrates the sensitivity of the acceleration trace to the particular choice of a high-frequency limit.