Vector-Valued Uniform Hazard Spectra

Abstract

Uniform hazard spectra (UHS) have been used as design earthquakes in several design codes. However, as the results from scalar probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), UHS do not provide knowledge about the simultaneous occurrence of spectral accelerations at multiple vibration periods. The concept of a single “design earthquake” is then lost on a UHS. In this study, a vector-valued PSHA combined with scalar PSHA is applied to establish an alternative design spectrum, named vector-valued UHS (VUHS). Vector-valued seismic hazard deaggregation (SHD) is also performed to determine the design earthquake in terms of magnitude, distance, and occurrence rate for the VUHS. The proposed VUHS preserves the essence of the UHS and can also be interpreted as a single design earthquake. To simplify the procedure for generating the VUHS, so that they can be easily incorporated into performance-based seismic design, an approximate method is also developed.