Spectrum-compatible earthquake records and their influence on the seismic response of reinforced concrete structures

Abstract

Three different methodologies for the generation of spectrum-compatible records are evaluated: wavelet-based modification of seed records, seed record adjustment based on the continuous wavelet transform, and synthetic record generation in the frequency domain. It was found that the three methodologies are capable of generating compatible records with an acceptable level of match. However, the records generated using the frequency domain approach exhibit unrealistic strong motion characteristics and a tendency to induce less inelastic demand in the structures. In the case of methodologies based on modification of actual earthquake records, it was found that when the seed records are selected based on their initial compatibility with the target spectrum, the resultant compatible records not only better retain the original characteristic of the records but the variability in the structural response is reduced.