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An algorithm developed in Matlab for the automatic selection of cut-off frequencies, in the correction of strong motion data

  • Research Article - Solid Earth Sciences
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Abstract

Strong motion recordings are the key in many earthquake engineering applications and are also fundamental for seismic design. The present study focuses on the automated correction of accelerograms, analog and digital. The main feature of the proposed algorithm is the automatic selection for the cut-off frequencies based on a minimum spectral value in a predefined frequency bandwidth, instead of the typical signal-to-noise approach. The algorithm follows the basic steps of the correction procedure (instrument correction, baseline correction and appropriate filtering). Besides the corrected time histories, Peak Ground Acceleration, Peak Ground Velocity, Peak Ground Displacement values and the corrected Fourier Spectra are also calculated as well as the response spectra. The algorithm is written in Matlab environment, is fast enough and can be used for batch processing or in real-time applications. In addition, the possibility to also perform a signal-to-noise ratio is added as well as to perform causal or acausal filtering. The algorithm has been tested in six significant earthquakes (Kozani-Grevena 1995, Aigio 1995, Athens 1999, Lefkada 2003 and Kefalonia 2014) of the Greek territory with analog and digital accelerograms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that significantly improved the present study. For the development of the source code we used the Matlab R2017a concurrent licenses provided from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

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  1. Section of Geophysics - Geothermics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784, Zografou, Greece

    Georgios Sakkas & Nikolaos Sakellariou

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  1. Georgios Sakkas
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  2. Nikolaos Sakellariou
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Correspondence to Georgios Sakkas.

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Sakkas, G., Sakellariou, N. An algorithm developed in Matlab for the automatic selection of cut-off frequencies, in the correction of strong motion data. Acta Geophys. 66, 425–448 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-018-0150-1

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