Identification of Near-Field Pulse-Like Ground Motions Recorded at Bajiao Station during the Mainshock of the Great Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

When earthquake occurs, it is in near-fault that the most serious damage happens and velocity pulse appears. Velocity pulse could have huge potential to destroy the structure in near-fault. The set of records at Bajiao Station is one of the three famous near-field sets of strong ground motion records whose PGAs are the largest in all the sets of records obtained from the mainshock of the Great Wenchuan Earthquake. Our research is to identify the pulse-like characteristics from the set of records at Bajiao Station. It is found that velocity pulses in the records are “hidden pulses”.