A spectrum-compatible earthquake simulation method with simultaneous adjustment to a typical earthquake energy time distribution

There are several aspects of the structural dynamic design, such as soil structure interaction phenomena, seismic qualification of structural and mechanic components and non-linear dynamic behaviour of special components under a strong seismic excitation, which are advantageously analyzed in the Time Domain. A proper application of this method requires an extensive and comprehensive data base of real and/or simulated earthquake records, conveniently scaled to satisfy the Target Response Spectrum. Most of the present methods for synthetic earthquake records generation are only limited to adjust the ordinates of a Target Response Spectrum in a statistical way and do not take into account the time distribution of the energy content of real earthquakes. This paper proposes a method for the generation of artificial earthquake records based on a linear combination of a set of damped sinusoidal waves, whose control variables are amplitude, frequency and time shifting from the beginning of each individual wave to the record origin. By means of a very simple algorithm, based on the superposition of the time distribution of the energy content in every single wave, a simultaneous fitting of a Target Response Spectrum and of a statistical time distribution of earthquake energy has been achieved. The time energy distribution has been evaluated, statistically, by means of the average time distribution of the well-known Arias Intensity Integral on a set of more than one hundred different real earthquake records. The proposed method ensures a more realistic definition of the influence of a simulated earthquake upon a real structure because it can generate acceleration records with stationary or non-stationary frequency contents. It can also provide a real time distribution to the earthquake total energy content, which can be advantageously used for the analysis of the development of structural ductility, that -in turn- is closely related to earthquakes' time energy distribution. (author)