Displacement Spectra for Long Periods

Ezio Faccioli,
a)
Roberto Paolucci,
a)
and Julien Rey
b)
Using selected sets of high-quality digital strong motion data from differ-
ent regions (Taiwan, Japan, Italy, and Greece), the salient features of dis-
placement response spectra in the long-period range are illustrated (up to 10
s period) as a function of magnitude, source distance, and site conditions. By
means of simple analytical models of displacement waveforms, we have de-
rived analytical expressions for the displacement spectra that provide satis-
factory ts to the observations. These expressions also demonstrate that the
moment magnitude and distance control the shape of the spectra consistent
with the commonly accepted models of the seismic source. Furthermore, we
derived from simple physical considerations an analytical expression of the
variation of peak ground displacement with magnitude and distance that rea-
sonably ts the observations. The ndings of this study are believed to be
particularly useful in the formulation of design elastic displacement spectra
for seismic codes, and in zoning studies of seismic hazard for long-period
structures. [DOI: 10.1193/1.1707022]
INTRODUCTION
The seismic Eurocode 8 Design of structures for earthquake resistance, commonly
referred to as EC8, is now approaching the conclusion of a thorough revision process
that will upgrade its status to that of a European norm (CEN 2003). Signicant changes
with respect to the previous version of this document (CEN 1994) include an improved
denition of the design elastic response spectra, and a physically plausible description of
the displacement spectrum in the range of vibration periods T
n
between 3.0 and 10.0 s.
To put this in proper perspective, we note that, while displacement spectra are a funda-
mental ingredient of displacement-based design procedures, converting code accelera-
tion spectra S
a
(T
n
) into displacement spectra through simple multiplication by (T
n
/2)
2
often results in unrealistic spectral shapes. This is because acceleration spectra are not as
sensitive to digitization errors as their displacement counterparts, and it is therefore not
surprising that idealized, perfectly valid acceleration spectra give rise to unrealistic dis-
placement spectra, e.g., monotonically increasing at long periods as for the International
Building Code (ICC 2000).
The updated EC8 proposal of displacement spectra rests largely on a previous study
(Tolis and Faccioli 1999), which made extensive use of ground acceleration data digi-
tally recorded during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake by different types
of accelerographs. At the same time, signicant work towards developing reliable elastic
a)
Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, P.za L. da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy
b)
Ajilon Engineering 13, Av. Morane Saulnier, 78941 Velizy, France
347
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 20, No. 2, pages 347376, May 2004; 2004, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
displacement spectra for design has been carried out using a subset of the European
strong motion data set; this subset was carefully selected discarding data with evident
long-period noise and resulted in attenuation relations for displacement spectral ordi-
nates up to T
n
3 s, as well as for peak ground velocity and displacement (Bommer and
Elnashai 1999, Tromans and Bommer 2002).
Spurred by the increasing diffusion of structural methods of analysis based on dis-
placement demand, not only for design but also for assessment of existing structures in
earthquake damage scenarios (see, e.g., Faccioli et al. 1999), we present here a new con-
tribution that aims at improving the formulation of displacement spectra over a wide pe-
riod range using high-quality digital records from recent strong earthquakes. This de-
scription can be constrained by only two source parameters, and thus can possibly
stimulate novel approaches to mapping seismic hazard in the long-period range.
We statistically analyze three sets of digitally recorded strong motion data from
earthquakes in the moderate (5.5M6.0), intermediate (6.0M6.5), and large (M
7.5) magnitude range. The rst two sets are from recent earthquakes of Italy, Greece,
and Japan (K-Net), while the third one is from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan.
For each set of data we investigate the dependence of displacement spectra on the source
distance, trying to separate near-eld from far-eld motions, and on-site conditions; the
very long period spectral value (i.e., around T
n
10 s) is of special interest because it
represents a realistic estimator of the peak ground displacement.
Then we explore the ability of simple analytical models to account for the observa-
tions, both in terms of spectral shapes and of variation of peak ground displacement with
magnitude and distance, highlighting the role of the seismic moment and of the signi-
cant duration of the source process as control parameters for the shape and amplitude of
the spectra.
Finally, the relevant implications of our work for seismic design are illustrated and
some indications are given for improvement of the available formulations of elastic dis-
placement spectra for design.
STRONG-MOTION DATA
One basic aim of this work is to statistically investigate the shape of displacement
response spectra, for periods up to 10 seconds, and its dependence on magnitude and site
conditions. To this end, exclusively digital acceleration records have been used because
long-period digitization errors affecting records from analog accelerographs generally
do not allow computing reliable displacement spectral ordinates for periods greater than
about 3 s (Bommer and Elnashai 1999).
Our task was facilitated by the availability of a reasonable number of digital records
obtained from signicant earthquakes of the last few years, on different site conditions
and over a wide range of distances. Thus the data set selected for this study has drawn
from three different sources: the large-magnitude 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan,
several intermediate magnitude events recorded by the Kyoshin Net in Japan, and a few
moderate magnitude European events such as the 1997 central Italy earthquake sequence
and the 1999 Athens earthquake.
348 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
DATA FROMTHE 1999 CHI-CHI MAIN SHOCK, TAIWAN
The Chi-Chi earthquake of 20 September 1999 is the largest (M
L
7.3, M
w
7.6)
inland seismic event in Taiwan in the twentieth century. This destructive earthquake pro-
vided a wealth of modern digital data for seismology and earthquake engineering, thanks
to the extensive instrumentation program initiated in 1996 by the Central Weather Bu-
reau (CWB) of Taiwan. For the main shock, over 300 digital records (especially for
source distances less than 50 km) have been obtained by CWB thanks to this instrumen-
tation program.
The accelerometer sensors installed by CWB have a at response up to 50 Hz; at the
free-eld sites the accelerographs are operated in trigger mode with a 20-second pre-
event memory and are usually set to record an extra 5 seconds after the signal drops
below a pre-set threshold. The Chi-Chi earthquake acceleration data at free-eld stations
were taken from Lee et al. (1999) and are also available at the CWB web site at
www.cwb.gov.tw/V3.0e/index-e.htm
For a description of the site conditions, we used throughout the paper the USGS clas-
sication based on the average shear-wave velocity in the upper 30 m (V
s,30
), consisting
of hard (V
s,30
750 m/s, Class A), stiff (360 m/sV
s,30
750 m/s, Class B), soft
(180 m/sV
s,30
360 m/s, Class C), and very soft (V
s,30
180 m/s, Class D) soil sites.
The site classication at each accelerograph station of Taiwan is available in the PEER
strong motion database (peer.berkeley.edu/smcat/), and is mainly based on the surface
geology, as discussed in Lee et al. (2001).
The CWB web site provides for each record the epicentral distance of the station.
However, since in this case the surface fault rupture and the focal mechanism are known
with good accuracy, we preferred using the closest distance to the fault rupture because
it is a more meaningful measure in the near range of a large earthquake.
A total of 92 three-component records (accelerograms) were selected for the Chi-Chi
main shock at distances between 0 and 50 km; the distribution of records among the
USGS site classes is given in Table 1.
DATA FROM JAPANESE EARTHQUAKES
A selection of records from the Kyoshin Net (K-Net) of Japan have been used to
investigate the displacement spectra for moderate (5.5M
JMA
6.0) and intermediate
magnitudes (6.0M
JMA
6.5). These data are provided by the National Research Insti-
tute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), in the form of a Kyoshin Net
CD. K-Net consists of 1,000 strong-motion observation stations, with an average dis-
tance between stations of about 25 km. We have mainly used earthquake records from
shallow events of 1996, 1997, and 1998 (from the CDs), with the addition of data pro-
vided by two events of 1999 and 2001 (downloaded from the K-Net web site, http://
www.K-Net.bosai.go.jp). As shown in Table 2, data have been retained from seven earth-
quakes in the 6.06.5 magnitude range and from nine earthquakes in the 5.56.0 range.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 349
The K-Net stations employ a sensor type V403BT, tri-axial force-balance accelerom-
eter with a natural frequency of 450 Hz and a damping factor of 0.707. The amplitude
response is at from less than 0.01 to about 20 Hz. No corrections have been made by
the NIED to the recorded acceleration values.
Table 1. Number of 3-component records as a function of distance range, magnitude range, and
available descriptions of site conditions. USGS site classes are used: A (V
s,30
750 m/s),
B (360 m/sV
s,30
750 m/s), C (180 m/sV
s,30
360 m/s), and D (V
s,30
180 m/s).
Region and M
range Total 010 km 1030 km 3050 km
Taiwan 92 A B C D A B C D A B C D
M
W
7.6 2 4 26 1 3 11 15 14 1 1 6 8
Japan 76 0 A B C D A B C D
(5.5M
W
6) 2 10 8 0 5 35 16 0
Japan (6M
W
6.5) 62 0 A B C D A B C D
3 7 12 0 9 13 18 0
Italy
(5.4M
W
6)
17 0 13 4
Greece
(M
W
6.0)
6 0 6 0
Table 2. List of the Japanese K-Net events used
Earthquake Latitude Longitude M
JMA
* No. of records
5.5M6.0
20/02/1997 (16h55) 41.8 142.9 5.6 4
04/03/1997 (12h51) 35.0 139.2 5.7 15
16/03/1997 (14h51) 34.9 137.5 5.8 16
03/04/1997 (04h33) 32.0 130.3 5.5 13
12/05/1997 (07h59) 37.0 141.3 5.5 2
24/05/1997 (02h50) 34.4 137.6 5.6 4
03/05/1998 (11h09) 35.0 139.2 5.7 15
14/06/1998 (22h17) 35.5 140.8 5.6 4
16/12/1998 (09h18) 31.3 131.6 5.5 3
6.0M6.5
26/03/1997 (17h31) 32.0 130.4 6.3 16
13/05/1997 (14h38) 32.0 130.3 6.2 14
25/06/1997 (18h50) 34.5 131.7 6.1 6
15/11/1997 (16h05) 43.7 145.1 6.1 6
03/09/1998 (16h58) 39.8 140.9 6.1 8
13/05/1999 (02h59) 43.0 143.9 6.4 3
24/03/2001 (15h28) 34.1 132.7 6.4 9
* The M
JMA
and M
w
scales tend to coincide in the ranges considered (Utsu 2002).
350 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
The availability of V
S
and V
P
loggings and of a geotechnical prole for each K-Net
station makes it easy to classify the site conditions at each accelerograph stations ac-
cording to the previous USGS classes. The distribution of records among the site classes
is reported in Table 1.
EUROPEAN DATA (ITALYAND GREECE)
Since moderate magnitude earthquakes (5.5M6) are often strongly damaging in
Europe, we selected several digitally recorded data from recent events of Italy and
Greece in order to enlarge the data set in this range with European data. Thus we have
used 17 three-component records from the Umbria-Marche earthquake sequence of Sep-
tember and October 1997 in central Italy. These data were originally made available on
CD-ROM by ENEL, the Italian National Electricity Board (1998); most of them can
now be found in the European strong-motion database (http://www.isesd.cv.ic.ac.uk).
The selection of Greek data consists of 6 digital records from the 1999 M
w
6.0 Ath-
ens earthquake, obtained by A-800 tri-axial force-balance accelerometers, with 68dB dy-
namic range. All Greek data are available on the cited European strong motion database.
The site conditions for the Italian and Greek data were mostly unknown, so that no clas-
sication in this sense could be introduced. For all the European records we selected
from the database the uncorrected acceleration time series. The salient epicentral data of
the previous events are shown in Table 3.
The overall distribution of the data set in terms of magnitude, distance, and site con-
ditions is illustrated in Table 1: this discloses an evident lack of digital records close to
the source of moderate and intermediate magnitude earthquakes both from Japan and
Europe, and also a scarcity of European data at more than 30 km distance.
DATA PROCESSING
A rst phase of data processing, aimed at uniform computation of the spectra and
obtaining some sample statistics, was carried out in the following steps.
On all records a standard baseline correction was performed, which removed from
the original record the mean calculated from a window of the pre-event portion of the
record. Then the ordinates of the 5% damped displacement response spectra have been
Table 3. Earthquake data for the digital strong motion records of Italy and
Greece
Earthquake Latitude Longitude Magnitude M
W
No. of records
Italy
26/09/1997 (00h33) 43.01 12.88 5.7 2
26/09/1997 (09h40) 43.03 12.85 6.0 2
06/10/1997 (23h24) 42.99 12.82 5.4 5
14/10/1997 (15h23) 42.91 12.93 5.7 8
Greece
07/09/1999 (11h56) 38.09 23.63 6.0 6
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 351
calculated at 121 values of the vibration period equally spaced on a log scale between
0.1 s and 10 s. For nearly all records, two spectra of horizontal motion and one of ver-
tical motion were thus obtained. In this paper we will analyze only horizontal spectra.
For each of the Taiwan, Japan, and Europe subsets, the spectra have been grouped in
the distance ranges from 0 to 10 km, 10 to 30 km, and 30 to 50 km; we used the fault
distance for the Chi-Chi earthquake and the epicentral distance in all other cases. We
have in fact assumed a point source approximation for earthquakes with M6.5; this
seems a plausible assumption since in this magnitude range we have no data at a dis-
tance less than 10 km. A subdivision of the spectra according to site conditions was also
maintained, where feasible, in each distance range.
The sample average and the standard deviation of all the response spectra in each
category of distance and site conditions and for each data set were calculated.
The average spectral curves with the standard deviation bands were plotted and com-
pared to gain some basic understanding on the overall properties of the spectra.
We preferred to investigate the data by distance and magnitude ranges rather than by
carrying out a regression analysis in the way of attenuation relations, due to the already
noted deciencies of the data set, but also because basic trends of the spectra are easily
appreciated by visual inspection.
To evaluate the adverse inuence of the long-period noise on the calculated displace-
ment spectra, we high-pass ltered a sample of 34 near-eld records from the Chi-Chi
earthquake with cutoff frequencies of f
1
0.05 Hz and f
2
0.1 Hz. The two cutoffs did
not produce signicant differences in the spectra in the selected period range, while for
only 6 of the records the 0.1 Hz ltering caused a reduction of over 20% in the spectral
displacement at 10 s. Due to the limited amount of records, this reduction tends to be
concealed by taking the average spectra. In Figure 1a the average spectrum for the l-
tered sample at 0.1 Hz is plotted with the average spectrum of the unltered sample.
A similar test was carried out on the Japanese K-Net data, using a randomly chosen
subset of 15 records, and on the European data, using a random sample of 5 records. As
shown in Figures 1b and 1c, in both cases the calculated displacement spectra are not
signicantly affected by long-period noise at least up to 10 s period.
Therefore, we have concluded that the effect of long-period noise on displacement
spectral ordinates, at least up to 10 s, is modest and does not signicantly affect the re-
sults of our study. A similar conclusion was drawn for the Chi-Chi data by Boore (2001),
who found that while the inuence of the long-period noise correction procedure is dra-
matic for obtaining reliable displacement time histories, the displacement response spec-
tra are largely insensitive to such procedures for oscillator periods less than about 20 s.
Only in few cases did he nd signicant differences starting at 6 s.
RESULTS
INFLUENCE OF MAGNITUDEAND DISTANCE
We have rst subdivided the whole data set in three magnitude classes: M
w
7.6
(Chi-Chi), 6.0M
w
6.5 (K-Net), and 5.4M
w
6.0 (K-NetEuropean data), regard-
352 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
less of the site conditions and of the geographical origin of the data. Within each class,
we have further grouped the records according to the distance from the source, i.e., fault
distance for the Chi-Chi earthquake, epicentral distance for the other ones. As shown in
Table 1, distance classes are 010 km (only records from Chi-Chi), 1030 km, and
3050 km.
The inuence of magnitude and distance on the 5% damped horizontal displacement
spectra is displayed in Figure 2. To provide a complete picture for all magnitude classes,
only the distance ranges of 1030 km and 3050 km have been considered. We have
plotted the absolute values of average response spectra, plus a standard deviation (Figure
2a), as well as the values normalized by the 10 s spectral ordinate (Figure 2b). All
sample moments have been calculated in linear, rather than logarithmic, scale. Some
comments are in order.
Figure 1. Inuence of high-pass ltering at 0.1 Hz on calculated displacement spectra, based
on a subset of randomly chosen accelerograms of the (a) Chi-Chi, (b) K-Net, and (c) Umbria-
Marche data sets.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 353
All spectra tend to increase up to a corner period beyond which the spectral ordi-
nates remain roughly constant for the M7.6 records, while for the other magnitude
classes they tend to decrease gently towards the peak ground displacement. The inu-
ence of magnitude on such corner period is not evident for M6.5: although there is a
slight tendency of a shift towards longer periods for increasing magnitudes, the corner
period in this magnitude range lies typically between 1 and 2 s. For the Chi-Chi earth-
quake the normalized average spectral shape is quite different, with a corner period be-
tween 6 and 7 s. In the following section, we will interpret these normalized shapes and
the corner periods based on simple impulsive models of ground motion.
The effect of distance on the normalized spectral shape is small, at least up to 50 km
from the source, due to the predominantly geometrical attenuation effect (i.e., R
1
).
Figure 2. (a) 5% damped horizontal displacement spectra for the indicated magnitude ranges in
the distance intervals 1030 km (left) and 3050 km (right). Thick lines represent average val-
ues, while thin lines represent average 1 standard deviation. (b) Same as above, but normal-
ized with respect to the 10 s spectral ordinate.
354 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
However, for M6.5 there is a moderate increase of the corner period with distance,
likely due to the increasing inuence of surface waves. In a previous study using the
European strong-motion data set, Bommer and Elnashai (1999) found that the inuence
of distance on displacement spectral shape, up to 3 s period, is negligible for practical
purposes.
In agreement with the earthquake scaling law, the long-period response spectral level
(at T
n
10 s) varies by two orders of magnitude, i.e., from about 1 cm to 100 cm, over
roughly two magnitude units. In the following we will assume that the 10 s spectral or-
dinate is a measure of the peak ground displacement (d
max
). As will be shown in the
following section, a simple analytical model of the seismic source and the geometric at-
tenuation of ground motion amplitude can predict rather accurately the observed depen-
dence of d
max
on magnitude and distance.
In a previous study on displacement response spectra, Tolis and Faccioli (1999) ana-
lyzed a set of 16 digital records of the M
w
6.9 Kobe earthquake of 17 January 1995. The
records were grouped according to the closest distance from the fault, 4 records ranging
from 0.1 to 3.5 km (from 17 to 27 km epicentral distance) and 12 records from 20 to 35
km (from 27 to 52 km epicentral distance). The two distance ranges were denoted as
near-eld and intermediate distance, respectively. Most recording stations were lo-
cated on alluvium sites (Site Class C). As shown in Figure 3, the average displacement
spectra show a pattern similar to that of Figure 2. Namely, the spectral values tend to
increase up to a corner period that depends on distance, around 23 s for near-eld and
45 s for intermediate distance, and decrease gently towards the peak ground displace-
ment, which we conventionally associate to the 10 s spectral ordinate.
Figure 3. Average displacement response spectra for near-eld (thick line) and intermediate
distance (thin line) digital records of the Kobe earthquake. (Adapted from Tolis and Faccioli
1999.)
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 355
Except for a recent study dealing with the inuence of the near-fault directivity on
response spectra (Somerville 2003), we believe that such long-period features, depend-
ing on magnitude and distance, had not been clearly identied in previous studies and, as
will be shown later, have some relevant implications on seismic design.
INFLUENCE OF SITE CONDITIONS
To analyze the inuence of site conditions on the displacement spectra, we have
grouped the data in each magnitude and distance classes according to the USGS site
classication illustrated in the previous section.
As shown in Table 1, some site classes, for a selected magnitude and distance range,
are represented by a very limited number of records, so that the evaluation of an average
spectrum turns out to be scarcely reliable. We have assumed a number of records N
5 (10 components) as sufcient for a reliable estimate of the average spectrum. This
problem affects particularly the Chi-Chi records, for which we have decided to merge
the site classes A and B, thus representing hard and stiff soil conditions with V
s,30
360 m/s, and classes C and D, representing soft and very soft soil conditions with
V
s,30
360 m/s. In this way, only the AB class for the 3050 km distance range turns
out to have less than 5 records to compute the average.
As regards K-Net, we have assembled the site classes as for Chi-Chi, taking into ac-
count that no record is available for very soft soil conditions (Class D).
The average displacement spectra for the different soil classes, distance and magni-
tude ranges are shown in Figures 4 and 5 for the Chi-Chi earthquake and the K-Net data,
respectively. We have denoted by a star the less reliable average curves, i.e., based on a
number of records N5.
A signicant amplication of the displacement spectral ordinates is apparent, due to
site effects, especially in the K-Net. It should be noted that, while for Chi-Chi records
the site classication is mainly based on the surface geology (Lee et al. 2001), for the
K-Net a geotechnical prole is available for each station, so that the classication based
on V
s,30
is probably more reliable than for the Chi-Chi data.
As regards Chi-Chi data, the long-period amplication is likely controlled by both
the source and the regional geology (e.g., effect of the surface rupture, strong propaga-
tion of surface waves in alluvium basins) so that extrapolation to other contexts requires
some caution. The tendency, manifested by the general smoothness and absence of nar-
row peaks in the soil spectra, seems to be that the impedance transition from hard geo-
logical formations to more recent sediments prevails over resonance of soft layers.
As regards the K-Net data (Figure 5), two features are worth noting. On the one
hand, a signicant peak is apparent close to 1 s in the 1030 km distance range, which
tends to shift towards longer periods for increasing epicentral distance. This could be
explained by the increasing inuence of surface waves with distance. On the other hand,
there is a clear soil/rock amplication of the 10 s spectral ordinates, ranging from about
10% (1030 km, 6M6.5) to about 65% (3050 km, 6M6.5), with an average
amplication around 40 to 50%.
356 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
To shed further light on the site effects at long periods we have calculated for the
K-Net data, and for all magnitude and distance classes considered in this study, the av-
erage ratio (1 s.d) of Class C displacement response spectra, with respect to Class A
and Class B merged together. This average spectral ratio is compared in Figure 6 with
the site amplication functions deduced from recent attenuation relationships (Table 4).
For a proper interpretation of this gure, one should keep in mind the different origin of
the curves: namely, the amplication functions of the attenuation relationships are de-
rived from multivariate regression of strong motion data sets from a larger set of source
Figure 4. Average 5% damped horizontal displacement spectra from Chi-Chi earthquake as a
function of fault distance and soil conditions (USGS classication). The * symbol in the legend
denotes a number of records N5 (10 components) to compute the average. The number of
records for each case is given in Table 1.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 357
and site conditions than the K-Net. Furthermore, the comparison among the different
site amplication functions is not straightforward due to the different magnitude and dis-
tance denitions, as well as site classications, used in the regressions.
With these caveats in mind, we note that there is a reasonable agreement of the
K-Net response spectral ratio with the previous site amplication functions up to about
Figure 5. Average 5% damped horizontal displacement spectra as a function of epicentral dis-
tance and soil conditions (USGS classication) for the magnitude ranges 5.4M6.0 and
6.0M6.5. Records from K-Net. The number of records for each case is reported in Table 1.
358 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
0.5 s, while around 1 s the K-Net amplication response is signicantly larger than the
other curves. The disagreement tends to decrease when a more precise measure of the
site amplication is introduced, such as the S-wave velocity averaged over the upper 30
m used by Boore et al. (1997). In this case, and with a representative ratio of 3 between
the rock and soil velocities, the BJF97 site amplication function is seen to lie within the
standard deviation band of the K-Net data.
Among the attenuation relationships considered in Table 4, only AS97 extends up to
5 s, the other ones being limited to 2 s. The dependence on rock site PGA of the AS97
amplication function is weak at long periods, so that the behavior shown in Figure 6 for
PGA
rock
0.1 g is representative of all PGAs. While the AS97 site amplication function
is nearly constant at periods larger than 2 s, with an average value around 1.75, the
K-Net curve decreases to a constant value around 1.41.5 for periods larger than 3 s.
The site amplication factor observed at long periods in the K-Net spectra can be
interpreted in terms of the increase of the peak ground displacement due to the wave
propagation across layers with increasing impedance with depth. For this purpose we
Figure 6. Average (1 s.d) ratio of displacement response spectra from K-Net data for all mag-
nitude and distance classes considered in this study. This ratio is compared with the site am-
plication functions deduced from recent attenuation relationships.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 359
consider the simple case of an S-wave displacement pulse propagating vertically through
a deep sedimentary deposit, with a smooth variation of shear-wave velocity and soil den-
sity from V
s1,

1
(bottom) to V
s2
,
2
(surface). A simple measure of the site amplication
ratio is derived by the assumption that the energy along a tube of rays is constant, pro-
vided that the energy losses due to reection, scattering, and internal dissipation are ne-
glected. In this case, the amplication ratio at long periods is given by (Bullen
1965), (
1
V
s1
)/(
2
V
s2
) being the impedance ratio. In our case, considering a repre-
sentative value 3, we obtain 1.73, close to the AS97 prediction.
MODELING OF DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA BASED ONANALYTICAL
SOLUTIONS
As stated in the introduction, one of the aims of this work is the improvement of the
current formulations of displacement response spectra at long periods for design appli-
cations. For this purpose, we have rst attempted to interpret through simple pulse-
shaped waveforms the normalized average spectral shapes obtained from digital records.
Such pulse-shaped waveforms are typical of near-eld ground motion from large
earthquakes, where the component in the direction of fault slip is generally characterized
by a ing-step displacement pulse, and the fault-normal component by a narrow-band
directivity pulse, the period of which increases with magnitude (Somerville 2002).
While most of the near-eld Chi-Chi records present a ing-step pulse such as
shown in the left side of Figure 7, the displacement histories from the moderate magni-
tude earthquakes considered in this study are generally more complicated. However, in
several cases, especially in the rock or stiff soil records from 10 to 30 km distance, the
displacement is dominated by a single pulse, such as shown in the right side of Figure 7.
We will rst analyze in this section the basic features of the displacement response
spectra derived from simple analytical pulses, with a shape similar to those just outlined.
Subsequently, we will check whether these simple models are able to provide a satisfac-
tory interpretation of the observed spectra.
Table 4. Site amplication functions deduced from recent attenuation relationships. For the de-
pendence on period of the coefcients, see the corresponding papers.
Attenuation
relationship
Site amplication
function
Period
range (s) Notes
Ambraseys et al. (1996)
(AMB96)
10
Cs(T)
02 Based on European data
Boore et al. (1997)
(BJF97)
(V
r
/V
s
)
bv(T)
02 V
r
, V
s
S-wave velocity at
rock and soil sites,
averaged in the upper 30 m.
Spudich et al. (1999)
(SEA99)
10
b6(T)
02 It coincides with BJF97,
for V
r
/V
s
2
Abrahamson & Silva (1997)
(AS97)
e
a10(T)
(PGA
rock
0.03)
a11(T)
05 PGA
rock
expressed in g. In
Figure 6, PGA
rock
0.1 g
360 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
FLING-STEP PULSE DISPLACEMENT SPECTRUM
We have rst considered a displacement pulse of the ing-step type with a nal fault
offset d
max
and a triangular velocity pulse of duration 2t
0
(Figure 8). The acceleration
a(t), velocity v(t), and displacement d(t) are dened as
at

d
max
/t
0
2
d
max
/t
0
2
0
vt

d
max
t/t
0
2
d
max
t
0

2
t
t
0

0
dt

d
max
2

t
t
0

2
d
max
2

t
t
0

2
4

t
t
0

d
max
(1)
where the previous expressions hold in the intervals 0tt
0
, t
0
t2t
0
, and t2t
0
, re-
Figure 7. Examples of digital records from our data set showing a permanent offset (left) and
a prevailing narrow-band displacement pulse (right). The TCU129 record comes from the Chi-
Chi earthquake, and has been baseline corrected. The Syntagma record comes from the 1999
Athens earthquake and has been high-pass ltered at 0.1 Hz, after baseline correction. In the
lower part of the gure, the 5% displacement response spectra of these records are shown.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 361
spectively (see Figure 8). By tedious but straightforward algebra, which will be omitted
here, it can be shown that the undamped displacement response spectrum has the fol-
lowing expression, illustrated in Figure 9:
DT
n
/d
max

1
2
2

T
n
t
0

154 cos 2

t
0
T
n

0T
n
/t
0
2 (2a)
DT
n
/d
max

2
2
2

T
n
t
0

1cos 2

t
0
T
n

T
n
/t
0
2 (2b)
where T
n
is the natural vibration period of the single-degree-of-freedom oscillator. In the
same gure we have also plotted the displacement response spectrum of the same signal
(Equation 1) for 5% structural damping, calculated by standard numerical integration. It
is important to note that at T
n
10 s the spectral displacement approaches d
max
for 0%
damping, but for 5% damping it is still about 20% lower than d
max
. This suggests that,
for this class of displacement pulses, the 10 s spectral ordinate may signicantly under-
estimate the peak ground displacement.
NARROW-BAND PULSE DISPLACEMENT SPECTRUM
A closed-form expression of the displacement spectrum has been derived also for a
second, simple waveform described as follows (Figure 10):
Figure 8. Fling-step pulse signal dened by Equation 1, representative of near-eld ground mo-
tion produced by a large magnitude earthquake, like the Taiwan (M 7.6) event, causing a per-
manent offset at the surface.
362 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
at

d
max
t/t
0
d
max
t2tt
0
/t
0
d
max
t2 tt
0
t2t/t
0
vt

d
max
/t
0
d
max
/t
0
0
dt

d
max
t/t
0
d
max
2
t
t
0

0
(3)
As in Equation 1, d
max
denotes the peak ground displacement, while () is the Dirac
delta function. This waveform will be used in the sequel to approximate the displace-
ment response spectra of narrow-band displacement pulses from moderate magnitude
earthquakes (5.4M6.5), up to an epicentral distance of 30 km. The displacement
spectrum has the following analytical expression, illustrated in Figure 11:
DT
n
/d
max

1
2

T
n
t
0

54 cos 2

t
0
T
n

0.8T
n
/t
0
1.4 (4a)
DT
n
/d
max

2
2

T
n
t
0

1cos 2

t
0
T
n

1.4T
n
/t
0
6.8 (4b)
Figure 9. Displacement spectrum for the signal dened by Equation 1. Thick line: undamped
spectrum of Equations 2a and 2b. Dashed line: 5% damped spectrum (calculated by numerical
integration).
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 363
Figure 10. Impulsive signal dened by Equation 3, representative of moderate magnitude
earthquakes (5.4M6.5) at distances from the source less than 30 km.
Figure 11. Displacement spectrum for the impulsive signal dened by Equation 3. Thick line:
undamped spectrum of Equations 4a to 4c. Dashed line: 5% damped spectrum (calculated by
numerical integration).
364 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
DT
n
/d
max

1
2

T
n
t
0

sin 2

t
0
T
n

T
n
/t
0
6.8 (4c)
Since the interest of this work is mainly on long periods, for the sake of simplicity
we omit the analytical expression for T
n
/t
0
0.8. In this range the formula becomes very
involved, since it should be split into various period ranges. Note that Equation 4 holds
for zero structural damping. As shown in Figure 11, when the damping increases to 5%,
the ratio of the peak spectral ordinate with respect to d
max
decreases from about 1.5 to
1.2. In this case the 0% and 5% damped spectral ordinates at 10 s are closer than in the
previous case, with an underestimation of the peak ground displacement of less than
10%.
We note that the basic features of the displacement spectrum at long periods depend
on the shape of the displacement pulse rather than on its derivatives, particularly the ac-
celeration. This is illustrated in Figure 12, where the 5% displacement spectra for three
simple pulses having similar shape and duration show quite similar features for periods
larger than about 2t
0
, that is, the duration of the pulse. For the purpose of our study, it is
Figure 12. Simple displacement pulses and corresponding 5% displacement response spectra.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 365
important to retain that the peak spectral ordinate is around 1.2 times the peak ground
displacement, and that such peak occurs at a structural period T
n
3t
0
.
We conclude that, although the acceleration histories derived by the present simple
models are rather unrealistic, the corresponding displacement spectral shapes should be
useful to interpret the observed data in the long-period range.
COMPARISONWITHAVERAGE OBSERVED DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA
The previous analysis has shown that the normalized displacement spectral shapes
illustrated in Figure 2b can be reproduced, at least qualitatively, by simple displacement
pulses, dened by only two parameters, namely, the half-duration t
0
and the peak value
d
max
. The objective of this section is, rst, to estimate these parameters with simple
physical considerations and well-calibrated earthquake scaling relations, and subse-
quently, to compare the analytical spectral shapes with the observed ones.
EVALUATION OF t
0
A simple way of estimating the t
0
parameter of the previous pulses is to associate it
to half of the duration of the largest velocity pulse of recorded ground motion. In the
absence of more general studies, we used the relationship recently proposed by Somer-
ville (2003) that correlates with magnitude for fault-normal forward rupture directivity
pulses. For rock conditions, the Somerville relationship is
log
10
3.170.5M
W
, (5)
and is depicted in Figure 13. This relationship is calibrated on a data set pertaining to
earthquakes in the 6.1 M
W
7.4 range, so that the lower bound exceeds the magnitude
range of our subset of moderate events. In spite of these limitations, we will see that
Equation 5, together with the approximation 2t
0
, results in a reasonable agreement
with observations up to 30 km distance.
We have rst checked the ability of the proposed spectra to t the observations, by
comparing the average normalized spectrum of the Chi-Chi data in the 030 km distance
Figure 13. Fundamental period of the near-eld fault-normal largest velocity pulse vs. moment
magnitude and rock conditions, according to Somerville (2003).
366 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
range with the 5% damped spectrum of the ing-step signal (Equation 1), using t
0
2 s. This corresponds to 4 s for M
W
7.6, according to Equation 5. The distance
range combines the two ranges 010 km and 1030 km considered in Figure 4, and no
distinction has been made regarding soil conditions. As shown in Figure 14, there is a
quite satisfactory agreement of the proposed spectral shape and the observations for pe-
riods larger than about 3 s, that is, the range that mainly concerns our investigation.
Subsequently, we have calculated the 5% damped displacement spectrum of the im-
pulsive signal (Equation 3) and compared it with the observed normalized average spec-
trum in the magnitude ranges 5.4M
W
6.0 and 6.0M
W
6.5, in the distance range
1030 km. According to Equation 5, for the rst magnitude range the impulsive signal is
dened by the parameter t
0
0.25 s, corresponding to M
W
5.7, while for the second
one t
0
0.45 s, corresponding to M
W
6.25. As shown in Figure 15, the agreement is
again rather good for both magnitude ranges. In particular, the period corresponding to
the maximum spectral displacement (MSD) and the ratio MSD/d
max
are predicted rather
accurately.
We have nally considered the displacement spectra from the Kobe earthquake (Fig-
ure 3). In this case, substituting M
w
6.9 in Equation 5, we obtain 1.86 s and t
0
0.93 s. Considering now the analytical pulse (Equation 3), its 5% damped displace-
ment spectrum is compared in Figure 16 with the normalized displacement spectrum of
Figure 3, for near-eld observations. The narrow-band pulse (Equation 3) instead of the
ing-step pulse (Equation 1) seems to be more appropriate in this case, since the strong
ground motion records in the Kobe area are dominated by subsurface faulting (see, e.g.,
Somerville 2003). The observed values are about 30% higher than those predicted ana-
lytically, but the period at which the maximum spectral displacement occurs is again cor-
Figure 14. Comparison of the 5% damped normalized displacement spectrum of the displace-
ment pulse (Equation 1) with the average displacement spectra of the Taiwan (Chi-Chi) records
in the distance range 030 km. The impulsive signal is dened by the parameter t
0
2 s, corre-
sponding to 4 s for a M7.6 earthquake, according to Somerville (2003).
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 367
rectly predicted. For intermediate distances, the peak is shifted towards higher periods,
due to the likely predominant effect of surface waves, and cannot be predicted by this
simple model.
Figure 15. Comparison of the 5% damping normalized displacement spectrum of the impulsive
signal (Equation 3) with the average displacement spectra of observed records in the distance
range 1030 km: (a) magnitude range 5.4M
W
6 and earthquakes from K-Net and European
data, and (b) magnitude range 6M
W
6.5 and earthquakes from K-Net. According to Equation
5, for the rst magnitude range the impulsive signal is dened by the parameter t
0
0.25 s, cor-
responding to an M5.7 earthquake, while for the second one t
0
0.45 s, corresponding to an
M6.25 earthquake.
Figure 16. Comparison of the 5% damped normalized displacement spectrum of the displace-
ment pulse (Equation 3) with the average displacement spectra of the Kobe digital records in
the near eld. The impulsive signal is dened by the parameter t
0
0.93 s, corresponding to
1.86 s for a M6.9 earthquake.
368 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
EVALUATION OF d
max
As previously shown, the use of the proposed analytical expressions for the displace-
ment spectra requires that the peak ground displacement d
max
be properly predicted. Ex-
isting attenuation relationships for d
max
(see Gregor and Bolt 1997, for California data;
Tromans and Bommer 2002, for European data) are mainly based on analog records and
suffer from the well-known instrumental limitations and long-period noise at periods
larger than about 3 s. Consistent with the framework followed in this study, we have pre-
ferred to check if a simple theoretical estimate of d
max
as a function of magnitude and
distance could t reasonably well the observations.
For this purpose, we rst consider the Brune (1970) model for the far-eld displace-
ment. Denoting by d(r,t-r/) the displacement at time t and at distance r from the
seismic source, where is the S-wave propagation velocity, we can write
dr,
k
1
r
r
0

expk
2
(6)
where r
0
equivalent radius of the seismic source, stress drop, shear modulus,
and k
1
and k
2
are model parameters (Brune 1970). Since the maximum of Equation 6
occurs for 1/k
2
, the peak ground displacement is
d
max
r
k
1
r
r
0

1
ek
2
(7)
Using the values k
1
1 and k
2
2.34/r
0
suggested by Brune, and recalling the rela-
tion for the seismic moment M
0
of a static circular crack (Kanamori and Anderson
1975):
M
0

16
7
r
0
3
, (8)
we obtain after simple algebra
d
max
r
0.09
r

1/3
M
0
2/3
. (9)
Introducing the moment magnitude scale (Hanks and Kanamori 1979), M
W
2/3 log
10
M
0
6, where M
0
is in (Nm), and using the typical value 310
10
(Pa),
gives
d
max

310
6
r

1/3
10
M
W
(10)
where d
max
and r are both expressed in m and in Pa. To cast Equation 10 into the
familiar form of attenuation relationships, we rst multiply it by the 2/3 factor to take
into account both for the free surface factor and the average partition of the displace-
ment among the different spatial components. Then, taking the logarithms, and express-
ing d
max
in cm, r in km, and in MPa, we obtain
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 369
log
10
d
max
4.46
1
3
log
10
M
W
log
10
r (11a)
The stress drop typically varies between 1 and 10 MPa (Kanamori and Anderson
1975). If we consider a representative value 3 MPa, Equation 11a further reduces
to
log
10
d
max
4.3M
W
log
10
r (11b)
Equation 11b properly applies in the far eld, with rhypocentral distance. Incor-
porating in the attenuation relation the specic features of near-eld ground motion,
such as rupture directivity, azimuth, and static components of displacement (Somerville
2002), would require investigations that are beyond the scope of this work.
In Figure 17 we plot the peak ground displacements from Equation 11a in the range
Figure 17. Peak ground displacement d
max
, according to Equation 11a, for reference distances
from the seismic source r20 km, r40 km, and for two limit values for the stress drop .
Symbols denote the median (1 s.d.) 10 s spectral displacement from the data sets considered
in this study.
370 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
1MPa10MPa, for the reference hypocentral distances r20 km and r40 km.
Also shown in these plots are the average values (1 s.d.) of the 10 s displacement spec-
tral ordinate of the different datasets considered in this study. The data in the distance
range 1030 km are associated to the r20 km plot and those in the 3050 km range to
the r40 km plot. In the evaluation of Figure 17, a few important limitations should be
considered. First, the distance measures are not homogeneous, since Equation 11b uses
the hypocentral distance. For this reason we have denoted by a different symbol the data
sets recorded in the far eld, for which the hypocentral and epicentral distances tend to
coincide, and in the near eld (Kobe and Chi-Chi), for which Equation 11b rigorously
does not apply. Second, we have not distinguished data according to the site conditions.
This may well account for the relatively high values corresponding to the M6.9 Kobe
earthquake, all of which, except for 3 records on Class B soil, refer to alluvium site con-
ditions (Class C). Finally, as shown previously, the 10 s displacement ordinate of the 5%
response spectrum underestimates d
max
by an amount ranging from about 20% for the
displacement pulse (Equation 1) to about 10% for the displacement pulse (Equation 3).
With these limitations in mind, we believe that Equation 11b captures reasonably
well, at least for the purpose of our study, the observed variation of d
max
with magnitude
and distance. Note also that, as for the estimation of the t
0
parameter, we have not cali-
brated the parameters of the theoretical model to t the observed data. Such parameters
come from theoretical considerations and from widely recognized scaling relations for
earthquakes. Hence the comparison of Figure 17, as well as those of Figures 14 to 16,
should be properly regarded as validations of our simple theoretical models.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SEISMIC DESIGN
The application of methods for earthquake-resistant design based on displacement
demand (see, e.g., Priestley 1997) is affected by the inaccurate denition of spectral re-
sponse in the long-period range. It is well known (see, e.g., Tolis and Faccioli 1999,
Bommer and Elnashai 1999) that calculating displacement response spectra for design
by simply multiplying the elastic acceleration spectrum by the factor (T
n
/2)
2
may lead
to unacceptably large displacement spectral ordinates for vibration periods larger than 3
or 4 s. Most of the seismic design regulations, even the most recent ones such as the
International Building Code (ICC 2000), do not take this problem into account, leading
to an indenite increase of displacement spectral ordinates with period. Hence they are
not generally applicable to displacement-based design techniques.
For this reason, in the most recent version of EC8 (CEN 2003), an independent ex-
pression for the elastic displacement spectrum is provided for periods larger than 3 s.
The EC8 displacement spectral shape has been mainly based on the analysis of a limited
amount of digital strong-motion records, essentially from the Kobe and the Umbria-
Marche earthquakes. Our study, based on a much larger amount of digital data and on
the interpretation of observations through simple theoretical models, allows us to draw
some indications that may be helpful to improve the present denition of seismic actions
in the long-period range for the EC8 as well as for other new codes for seismic design.
Referring to Figure 18, the most important features for the denition of the EC8
elastic displacement spectrum are the following:
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 371
the spectral displacement plateau (MSD in Figure 18) starts at control periods
T
D
1.2 for M5.5 and T
D
2.0 for M5.5;
the MSD plateau extends up to control period T
E
, dependent on soil conditions
(T
E
4.5 s for soil class A, T
E
5.0 s for soil class B, T
E
6.0 s for the other soil
classes);
the d
max
plateau is reached at control period T
F
10 s;
the ratio of the maximum spectral displacement and the peak ground displace-
ment is MSD/d
max
2.5.
Furthermore, a relation between d
max
and a
max
is given as follows:
d
max
0.025a
max
ST
C
T
D
, (12)
where the soil amplication factor S and T
C
depend on magnitude (M5.5 or M
5.5) and on the soil class.
In Figure 19 we have plotted the EC8 normalized displacement response spectrum,
for Site Class B and M5.5 (S1.2, T
C
0.5), together with the spectrum constructed
according to the procedure of Newmark and Hall (1982) and used by Chopra and Goel
(2001) for the assessment of displacement-based design techniques. In the latter spec-
trum, the T
D
control period depends on the ratio v
max
/d
max
, hence indirectly on magni-
tude. The ratio MSD/d
max
of the Newmark and Hall (NH) spectrum depends on the
probability level: for 5% structural damping, this ratio is 2.01 for the 84
th
percentile
spectrum and 1.39 for the median spectrum. Finally, T
E
10 s and T
F
33 s.
For the complete denition of the previous spectra, the peak ground motion param-
eters d
max
and a
max
are needed. For this purpose, we have considered typical values for
the case M6.2 and R20 km. Namely, we started from d
max
4 cm, which, according
to the K-Net data, is the average value in the magnitude range between 6.0 and 6.4 for
epicentral distances between 10 and 30 km. Then, from Equation 12, a
max
0.14 g is ob-
tained. In addition to d
max
and a
max
, the NH spectrum further requires the denition of
Figure 18. Elastic displacement spectral shape according to Eurocode 8.
372 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
the peak ground velocity: according to the attenuation relation of Tromans and Bommer
(2002), with the previous values of M and R, a median value v
max
9 cm/s has been ob-
tained and considered for the construction of the spectrum.
We have superimposed to the previous curves of Figure 19 the normalized average,
and average 1 s.d., displacement spectra from the K-Net sample, for the corresponding
magnitude and distance range. This gure, combined with the previous results of this
study, suggests the following indications for the improvement of the design displacement
spectral shapes:
the MSD/d
max
ratio is signicantly overestimated by the EC8 spectrum and by
the 84
th
percentile NH spectra, while the median NH MSD/d
max
value of 1.39
(not shown in Figure 19) is in better agreement with the observations;
Figure 19. Comparison of the normalized elastic displacement spectra according to Eurocode 8
and to Newmark and Hall (1982), referring to the 84
th
percentile, for peak ground motion val-
ues: d
max
4 cm, v
max
9 cm/s, a
max
0.14 g, representative of a M6.2 earthquake at R
20 km distance. The normalized 50% and 84% percentile 5% displacement spectra of the
K-Net, in the 6.0M6.4 and 10 kmR30 km magnitude and distance ranges are also
shown.
DISPLACEMENT SPECTRA FOR LONG PERIODS 373
as shown in Figure 5 for the K-Net data, as well as in Figure 16 for the near-eld
Kobe data recorded on alluvium, the MSD/d
max
ratio is seen to increase with
softer soil conditions; however, this ratio never exceeds 1.75 on the observed av-
erage spectra;
for the ing-step displacement pulses (Figure 14), none of the previous spectral
shapes is adequate for design;
the dependence on magnitude of the T
D
control period dening the beginning of
the plateau of the elastic displacement spectrum should be carefully considered,
especially for large magnitude earthquakes.
CONCLUSIONS
Using selected sets of high quality digital strong motion data from different regions
(Taiwan, Japan, Italy, and Greece), we have illustrated the salient features of displace-
ment response spectra in the long-period range (up to 10 s period) as a function of mag-
nitude, source distance, and site conditions.
By means of simple analytical models, we have interpreted the observed spectral
shapes, showing that their basic features are controlled by the moment magnitude and
distance, consistent with commonly accepted models of the seismic source. Further-
more, we have shown that the observed variation of peak ground displacement with
magnitude and distance can be predicted reasonably well through simple physical con-
siderations, based on a widely accepted model of seismic source.
Two analytical expressions for the long-period displacement spectrum corresponding
to different ground-motion pulse shapes have been derived: although they are valid only
for 0% damping, the inuence of the damping ratio was found to be limited at long pe-
riods, as shown in Figures 9 and 11 for 5% damping. These analytical expressions could
be incorporated within seismic hazard assessment studies to produce reliable predictions
of uniform hazard displacement spectra by just using an attenuation relation such as
Equation 11b to provide the anchoring value of d
max
.
Signicant site amplication effects on the long-period spectral ordinates were
found, especially in the K-Net Japanese data, where the geological/geotechnical infor-
mation was accurate enough to provide a reliable classication of the sites. Referring to
the 10 s spectral ordinates, which we have used to estimate the peak ground displace-
ment, the amplication ranges from about 10% (1030 km, 6M6.5) to about 65%
(3050 km, 6M6.5), with an average value of about 33%, which can be explained in
terms of soil/rock impedance contrast.
Finally, we have indicated that the present formulations of elastic displacement spec-
trum for design should probably be revised in light of the results of this study. Namely,
the ratio between the maximum spectral displacement and the peak ground displacement
seems to be overestimated, even if site effects are taken into account. Furthermore, in the
presence of displacement pulses with a permanent offset, typically when strong ground
motion is dominated by surface faulting, the present spectral shapes are not adequate for
design and should be revised.
374 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY
In spite of the limitations due to the relative scarcity and heterogeneity of data, we
believe that the ndings of this study will be useful not only in the formulation of design
elastic displacement spectra for seismic codes, but also in zoning studies of seismic haz-
ard for long-period structures, and will stimulate future research on this topic when more
digital data becomes available. Several relevant issues, which could not be resolved here
due to lack of data, need further investigation, such as modeling the directivity effects on
spectra in the near eld, the dependence on the style of faulting, and the role of site
effects for very soft soil conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to Prof. G. Gazetas, of the National Technical University of
Athens, who provided the digital data from Greece. This work has been supported by the
European Commission Contract No. HPRN-CT-1999-00035 (Safety assessment for
earthquake risk reduction). The comments of two anonymous reviewers stimulated a
thorough revision, which was of considerable benet to the article.
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376 E. FACCIOLI, R. PAOLUCCI, AND J. REY