Ground Motion Prediction for Urban Earthqueak Disaster Mitigation

尽管美国和日本的建筑规范和做法已经发展到为生命安全提供了很大程度的保护，但最近的1994年北岭地震和1995年神户地震表明，近场地面运动即使对按照现行规范设计的结构也构成了严重的挑战。虽然反应谱在所有现行设计准则和规范规定中为设计地震动的规范提供了基础，但人们越来越认识到，仅有反应谱不能提供对近断层地震动的充分表征。这表明，除了反应谱外，还必须使用诸如近断层脉冲的幅度、周期和周期数等时域参数及其能量特征来改进近断层地震动的表示，以用于结构的分析和设计。该项目的目标是开发用于工程设计和评估的表征近断层地震动的方法。该项目将与京都大学的岩田教授以及其他几个日本研究机构的同事合作完成，首席调查人员与这些机构有长期的合作关系。

Although building codes and practices in the United States and Japan have been developed to the point where they provide a large measure of protection of life safety, the recent 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquake have demonstrated that near-field ground motions present severe challenges even to structures designed according to current codes. While the response spectrum provides the basis for the specification of design ground motions in all current design guidelines and code provisions, there is a growing recognition that the response spectrum alone does not provide an adequate characterization of near-fault ground motions. This indicates the importance of developing an improved representation of near-fault ground motions using time domain parameters such as the amplitude, period and number of cycles of the near fault pulse, and its energy characteristics, in addition to the response spectrum, for use in analysis and design of structures. The objectives of this project is to develop methods for characterizing near-fault ground motion for use in engineering design and evaluation. The project will be done in collaboration with Professor Iwata of Kyoto University, and colleagues from several other Japanese research organizations, with whom the Principal Investigators have a long term collaborative relationship.