Use of simulated strong ground motion records in earthquake engineering applications

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, İnşaat Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2016

Öğrenci: SHAGHAYEGH KARİMZADEH NAGHSHİNEH

Danışman: AYŞEGÜL ASKAN GÜNDOĞAN

Özet:

With the recent advances in scientific computing, ground motion simulations have become more common. However, use of simulated motions for earthquake engineering purposes is still not well investigated. In this thesis, the efficiency of records simulated with the stochastic finite-fault technique in seismic demand estimation is studied in two different earthquake engineering applications. First, vulnerability assessment in a selected region, Erzincan (Turkey) is performed with simple single-degree-of-freedom structural models. For this purpose, seismic loss estimation for past and potential events is carried out considering both regional seismicity and local building information. Comparison of the estimated damage with the observed damage during the 1992 Erzincan earthquake reveals that, with well-defined local parameters, realistic ground motions can be simulated and used as input to SDOF models for seismic loss estimation. In the second part, nonlinear time history analyses of reinforced-concrete multi-degree-of-freedom models are performed to compare structural responses to simulated records with those to the corresponding real records. For this purpose, three case studies are considered: The 1992 Erzincan (Turkey) (Mw=6.6), the 1999 Düzce (Turkey) (Mw=7.1), and the 2009 L’Aquila (Italy) (Mw=6.3) earthquakes. Results show that for Erzincan with predominant basin effects, simulated motions fail to realistically predict real MDOF responses. However, results are promising for Düzce located on a shallow alluvial basin. For L’Aquila located mostly on stiff sites, results vary according to the simulation technique applied. In summary, when the simulated motions match the real records in terms of major seismological features, use of simulations in earthquake engineering seems feasible.