Spatial Coherency Model Considering Focal Mechanism Based on Simulated Ground Motions

The spatial coherencies of ground motions are the key to establishing multi-support excitation for large-dimension structures. Most of the existing models were established based on ground motions recorded at dense observation arrays which barely show any detailed information on the focal mechanism. However, in the near field, ground motions are dominated by the source, and so are the spatial coherencies of ground motions. In this paper, a deterministic physics-based method was used to simulate ground motions in the near field for various focal mechanism scenarios. The coherencies of the simulated ground motions were calculated. The Loh coherency model was used to fit the variation in the calculated coherencies for each scenario. The results show that the focal mechanism has a significant effect on the spatial coherencies of simulated ground motions. Finally, the probability density distributions of the parameters, a and b, of the Loh coherency model were obtained, and a coherency model was proposed, based on the Loh coherency model, in which the parameters are taken to be dependent on the focal mechanism.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of focal mechanism on the spatial coherencies of ground motions by simulating near-field ground motions. A proposed coherency model based on the focal mechanism is also introduced.