Abstract
The effect of near-fault ground displacement is a significant factor when structures straddle a fault, because the fault produces both static step-like deformations and dynamic pulse-like ground motions. It has been observed that the static displacements measured up to 10 m and strong ground motion velocity pulses exceed 100 cm/s. As there is no concrete method for the seismic design of near-fault structures based on earthquake-induced fault displacement, the numerical simulation of near-fault ground motions is of great significance. In this paper, we describe a hybrid method combining stochastic and theoretical Green’s functions for synthesizing near-fault ground motions. Our approach considers the complete waveforms (far-, intermediate-, and near-field terms) of both the dynamic and static terms. To demonstrate the hybrid method, two simple examples of strike-slip and dip-slip fault models are simulated. The results exhibited dynamic displacement with the fling-step of near-fault movement. Furthermore, the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan is also simulated, and the results showed good agreement with the observed recordings. Thus, the proposed method is a useful tool for evaluating near-fault ground motions for designing bridges and other structures.
Highlights
Various facilities and structures have long spatial extents and/or natural periods, such as long-span bridges, embankments, pipelines, and high-rise or base-isolated buildings
The other simulated displacements are in good agreement with the observations, which showed that the proposed hybrid method could effectively simulate the near-fault strong ground motions
We have proposed a hybrid method to simulate strong ground motions in near-fault areas for the seismic design of bridge structures
Summary
Various facilities and structures have long spatial extents and/or natural periods, such as long-span bridges, embankments, pipelines, and high-rise or base-isolated buildings. The ground displacements (as shown in Figures 2A,B) induced by fault activities are important factors in the safety of structures. The observed performance of these essential structures following recent earthquakes suggests that conventional design methods do not satisfy the required performance levels for permanent displacement, as shown in Figure 1 (middle part of the displacement waveforms). If there is no other alternative than to locate structures across an active fault, obtaining the spatially varying strong ground motions, especially the permanent tectonic displacements across the fault, is very useful for seismic design
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