Study on real-time correction of site amplification factor

• Main Authors: Q. Xie, Q. Ma, J. Zhang, H. Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2019-12-01
• Series: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
• Online Access: https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2827/2019/nhess-19-2827-2019.pdf

<p>The site amplification factor was usually considered to be scalar values, such as amplification of peak ground acceleration or peak ground velocity, or increments of seismic intensity in the earthquake early warning (EEW) system or seismic-intensity repaid report system. This paper focuses on evaluating an infinite impulse recursive filter method that could produce frequency-dependent site amplification and compare the performance of the scalar-value method with the infinite impulse recursive filter method. A large number of strong motion data of IBRH10 and IBRH19 of the Kiban Kyoshin network (KiK-net) triggered in more than 1000 earthquakes from 2004 to 2012 were selected carefully and used to obtain the relative site amplification ratio; we model the relative site amplification factor with a casual filter. Then we make a simulation from the borehole to the surface and also simulate from the front-detection station to the far-field station. Compared to different simulation cases, it can easily be found that this method could produce different amplification factors for different earthquakes and could reflect the frequency-dependent nature of site amplification. Through these simulations between two stations, we can find that the frequency-dependent correction for site amplification shows better performance than the amplification factor relative to velocity (ARV) method and station correction method. It also shows better performance than the average level and the highest level of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) earthquake early warning system in ground motion prediction. Some cases in which simulation did not work very well were also found; possible reasons and problems were analyzed and addressed. This method pays attention to the amplitude and ignores the phase characteristics; this problem may be improved by the seismic-interferometry method. Frequency-dependent correction for site amplification in the time domain highly improves the accuracy of predicting ground motion in real time.</p>