Abstract

SummaryThis short communication introduces a quantitative approach for the engineering validation of ground‐motion simulations based on information theory concepts and statistical hypothesis testing. Specifically, we use the Kullback‐Leibler divergence to measure the similarity of the probability distributions of recorded and simulated ground‐motion intensity measures (IMs). We demonstrate the application of the proposed validation approach to ground‐motion simulations computed by using a variety of methods, including Graves and Pitarka hybrid broadband, the deterministic composite source model, and a stochastic white noise finite‐fault model. Ground‐motion IMs, acting as proxies for the (nonlinear) seismic response of more complex engineered systems, are considered herein to validate the considered ground‐motion simulation methods. The list of considered IMs includes both spectral‐shape and duration‐related proxies, shown to be the optimal IMs in several probabilistic seismic demand models of different structural types, within the framework of performance‐based earthquake engineering. The proposed validation exercise (1) can highlight the similarities and differences between simulated and recorded ground motions for a given simulation method and/or (2) allow the ranking of the performance of alternative simulation methods. The similarities between records and simulations should provide confidence in using the simulation method for engineering applications, while the discrepancies should help in improving the tested method for the generation of synthetic records.

Highlights

  • Recent advances in high‐performance computing and understanding of complex seismic source features, path effects, and site effects, along with the scarcity or total absence of suitable recorded ground‐motion signals for specific earthquake scenarios, have led to an increasing interest in ground‐motion simulation

  • A similar effort is being made in Italy, through a recently released web‐repository (SYNTHEtic SeISmograms database) containing synthetic waveforms for Italian scenario earthquakes coming from different simulation techniques[3]

  • We focus on the engineering validation of ground‐motion simulations in terms of spectral‐shape and duration‐related intensity measures (IMs)

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Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Recent advances in high‐performance computing and understanding of complex seismic source features, path effects, and site effects, along with the scarcity or total absence of suitable recorded ground‐motion signals It does not just provide a paired comparison (ie, at the same recording locations, for historical events) between the recorded and simulated IM datasets in mean and standard deviation of their distributions This represents a useful tool for the engineering validation of simulated ground motions in terms of the nonlinear structural demands or expected loss for a portfolio of structures (or infrastructure) where an overall as opposed to a paired comparison of the records and simulations is of interest, for example, for catastrophe risk modeling purposes.[18] The proposed approach can be used to measure the similarity of the distributions of seismic response to sets of simulations and recordings matching a target (elastic) response spectrum mean and variance, consistently with the current practice in ground‐ motion selection and scaling for building code applications.[19].

Method
| CONCLUSIONS
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