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Empirical equations for the prediction of PGA and pseudo spectral accelerations using Iranian strong-motion data

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Abstract

A recently compiled, comprehensive, and good-quality strong-motion database of the Iranian earthquakes has been used to develop local empirical equations for the prediction of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5%-damped pseudo-spectral accelerations (PSA) up to 4.0 s. The equations account for style of faulting and four site classes and use the horizontal distance from the surface projection of the rupture plane as a distance measure. The model predicts the geometric mean of horizontal components and the vertical-to-horizontal ratio. A total of 1551 free-field acceleration time histories recorded at distances of up to 200 km from 200 shallow earthquakes (depth < 30 km) with moment magnitudes ranging from Mw 4.0 to 7.3 are used to perform regression analysis using the random effects algorithm of Abrahamson and Youngs (Bull Seism Soc Am 82:505–510, 1992), which considers between-events as well as within-events errors. Due to the limited data used in the development of previous Iranian ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) and strong trade-offs between different terms of GMPEs, it is likely that the previously determined models might have less precision on their coefficients in comparison to the current study. The richer database of the current study allows improving on prior works by considering additional variables that could not previously be adequately constrained. Here, a functional form used by Boore and Atkinson (Earthquake Spect 24:99–138, 2008) and Bindi et al. (Bull Seism Soc Am 9:1899–1920, 2011) has been adopted that allows accounting for the saturation of ground motions at close distances. A regression has been also performed for the V/H in order to retrieve vertical components by scaling horizontal spectra. In order to take into account epistemic uncertainty, the new model can be used along with other appropriate GMPEs through a logic tree framework for seismic hazard assessment in Iran and Middle East region.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Building and Housing Research Centre of Iran for providing them with the accelerograms and shear wave velocities used in the current study. H. Zafarani and M.R. Soghrat were supported by the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) funds. This work has been also supported by the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), No. 26, Arghavan St., North Dibajee, Farmanieh, P.O. Box: 19395/3913, Tehran, Iran

    H. Zafarani & M. R. Soghrat

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Bassini 15, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Lucia Luzi & Giovanni Lanzano

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  1. H. Zafarani
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  2. Lucia Luzi
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  3. Giovanni Lanzano
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  4. M. R. Soghrat
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Correspondence to H. Zafarani.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 1 Regression coefficients for PGA and pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) obtained from geometrical mean of horizontal component (GeoH)
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Table 2 Regression coefficients for PGA and pseudo-spectral acceleration obtained for the vertical-to-horizontal ratio (V/H)
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Zafarani, H., Luzi, L., Lanzano, G. et al. Empirical equations for the prediction of PGA and pseudo spectral accelerations using Iranian strong-motion data. J Seismol 22, 263–285 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-017-9704-y

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