Influence of rupture velocity on risk assessment of concrete moment frames: Supershear vs. subshear ruptures

Abstract

The possibility of ground motions propagating at speeds greater than the Rayleigh wave speed was accepted not long ago, and thus studies on them are limited. These supershear motions are believed to damage specific kinds of infrastructure, and thus studying the risk associated is important. As a part of this investigation, we use state-of-the-art tools from the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure to estimate normalized economic losses and injuries, by considering one particular building type and occupancy category listed in HAZUS-MH. Faults of similar dimensions are shown to replicate subshear and supershear earthquake instances with four groups of station points parallel to the fault and four more perpendicular to the fault. Both fault parallel and fault normal components of ground motion are stimulated. The economic loss % and injury is standardized in metrics of repair cost and population respectively and is estimated along with the associated uncertainty for 3, 6 and 9-story commercial concrete moment frame structures. Inclusion of complex phenomena such as supershear earthquake events in evaluating economic losses and risk will contribute to the United Nation Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) vision of disaster-resilient development goals.