Ground Motion Synthesis Based on Power Spectrum Envelope

Abstract

The paper proposes a new method, which is used for providing ground motion input for seismic design under rare earthquake action. The crucial step of this method is to use power spectrum envelop, obtained from natural earthquake records but not deriving from response spectrum, as target curve to synthesis ground motion. The result shows that power spectrum obtained from this method fits well with the target curve, and the produced ground motion can properly predict the response spectrum of acceleration. By importing the concept of energy envelope, this method reduces the randomness of the ground motion sampling and the variability of the result in dynamic finite element analysis.