Simulation of fling step pulse of near-fault ground motion by using wavelet smoothening and improved bell-shaped function

Abstract

The current study was conducted with the purpose of proposing a new model based on wavelet transform and mathematical functions to simulate a near-fault pulse-type fling-step records under the assumption that each record of the pulse type was a combination of pulse and non-pulse components. Wavelet transform-based smoothening technique was employed to extract the original pulse component from the database of 15 earthquake records. A simple mathematical function characterized by three parameters, namely α, β, and t0, was then fitted to original extracted pulse. Not only was the proposed function simple but also different and comprehensive. Predictive equations were developed to associate the aforementioned three parameters with the earthquake and site characteristics. Four practical samples were further presented to illustrate the matching precisions of the proposed method.