Robin McGuire has co-authored a technical paper entitled, “Evaluation of Ground Motion Selection and Modification Procedures using Synthetic Ground Motions,” which examines methods of scaling and modifying earthquake ground motion records to represent design motions for structures. Robin’s co-authors are Neal Simon and Anil Chopra, both at Cal Berkeley. The current paper expands on a 2014 paper, “A framework for the evaluation of ground motion selection and modification procedures,” written by the same authors, that was published in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics in October, 2014.
The latest paper uses 10,000 synthetic ground motions to evaluate alternative procedures to scale and modify ground motions, incorporating concepts of conditional intensity measures. The research illustrates how we can quantify and improve the precision of seismic hazard estimates and seismic demand curves (which quantify risk to structures based on the response of nonlinear structural models). These results will help engineers select and scale real recorded ground motions to represent intense levels of shaking, which perhaps have not been well documented for a particular site (with a particular magnitude and distance dominating the seismic risk). The current paper has been accepted for publication later this year in the journal Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. Robin’s participation in this research was supported by LCI’s continued commitment to ongoing studies in earthquake engineering and geosciences related to better understanding and reducing earthquake risk to society.