Time-domain dimension-reduction representation for stochastic ground motion utilizing filtered white noise

Abstract

A method is proposed for characterizing and simulating both stationary and fully non-stationary stochastic ground motions. This method is based on discrete filtered white noise models, including single and double filtered, with the latter is introduced to suppress low-frequency components. Specifically, the proposed method expresses seismic ground motion as a linear combination of products involving orthogonal random variables and deterministic functions. Further, by defining high-dimensional orthogonal random variables as orthogonal functions of extremely low dimensional elementary random variables, efficient dimension-reduction (DR) of primitive ground motion process can be achieved. To illustrate this concept, three distinct categories of random orthogonal functions involving only one or two elementary random variables are examined, employing filtered white noise models to simulate ground motion acceleration processes, thereby demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Simultaneously, recommendations for employing the proposed method in simulations are provided based on an analysis of the impacts of various parameters on random ground motion processes. Case studies demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method compared to Monte Carlo (MC) methods. Furthermore, case studies on fully non-stationary ground motion highlight the practical applicability of the proposed method in engineering.