Empirical Correlations of Spectral Input Energy with Peak Amplitude, Cumulative, and Duration Intensity Measures

Abstract

ABSTRACT In earthquake engineering, it is acknowledged that a vector of intensity measures (IMs) can better predict seismic structural responses than a single measure. Hence, a vector of IMs is widely applied in a number of applications, such as probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, probabilistic seismic risk analysis, and ground-motion selections. Spectral input energy (EI) has been demonstrated as a promising IM in earthquake engineering, especially in the energy-based seismic design of structures. However, this important measure has not been included in the vector of IMs. Therefore, it is worthwhile to incorporate EI with other important IMs by examining correlations. This study analyzes the empirical correlations of spectral EI with peak amplitude-based IMs, cumulative-based IMs, and duration-related IMs. It is found that spectral absolute EI has strong correlations with peak ground velocity at all investigated periods. However, spectral EI is negatively correlated with duration-based IMs. To demonstrate the applicability of the examined correlations, a simple example is finally presented by employing EI for the ground-motion selections and seismic hazard assessment based on the generalized conditional intensity measure approach.