Broadband Ground Motion Simulation Within the City of Düzce (Turkey) and Building Response Simulation

Abstract

In areas with significant seismic activity and insufficient seismic networks, simulated ground motions are required for both seismic hazard and engineering analyses. One important task is evaluating the efficiency of the simulated records in building response estimation. In this study, a hybrid ground motion simulation framework is presented to obtain broadband ground motion time histories of a past major earthquake in Duzce (Turkey). The hybrid ground motion simulation framework presented herein is a combination of a discrete-wavenumber finite element method for simulating low frequencies and a stochastic finite-fault method for the higher frequencies. The proposed technique is first validated by the simulation of the 12 November 1999 Duzce earthquake (\(M_{\text{w}}\) = 7.1), which occurred in the North Anatolian Fault Zone, Turkey. Peak simulated ground motions at selected nodes are then compared against ground motion prediction equations derived with global and local data sets. Next, the spatial distribution of simulated peak ground motion intensities are obtained in the region and compared with the observed damage distribution. Results demonstrate that the earthquake is simulated effectively despite the limitations in number of stations and velocity models. Finally, to evaluate the simulated records in building response estimation, nonlinear time history analyses of three reinforced-concrete multi-degree-of-freedom structures are performed with real and simulated records of the 1999 Duzce earthquake in the OpenSees platform. The results reveal that reasonable predictions can be made regarding the dynamic response of structures using the records simulated with the approach presented herein.