Earthquake time histories compatible with the 2005National building code of Canadauniform hazard spectrum

Abstract

The seismic design provisions of the 2005 National building code of Canada (NBCC) (NRC 2005) describe earthquake ground motions for which structures are to be designed in terms of a uniform hazard spectrum (UHS) having a 2% chance of being exceeded in 50 years. The “target” UHS depends on location and site condition, where site condition is described by a classification scheme based on the time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the top 30 m of the deposit. For some applications, such as dynamic analysis by time history methods, it is useful to have time histories that represent the types of earthquake motions expected and match the target UHS from the NBCC over some prescribed period range. In this study, the stochastic finite-fault method is used to generate earthquake time histories that may be used to match the 2005 NBCC UHS for a range of Canadian sites. Records are provided for site classes A, C, D, and E. They are freely available at www.seismotoolbox.ca .