State of the art in modeling, synthetics, statistical estimation: and engin
eering applications of strong ground motion is reported in this paper. In p
articular. models for earthquake wave motion are presented, in which uncert
ainties both in the earth medium and the seismic source are taken into cons
ideration. These models can be used to synthesize realistic strong earthhqu
ake ground motion, specifically near-field ground motion which is quite oft
en not well recorded in real earthquakes. Statistical estimation techniques
are also presented so that the characteristics of spatially-correlated ear
thquake motion can be captured and consequently used in investigating the s
eismic response of such large scale structures as pipelines and long-span b
ridges. Finally, applications of synthesized strong ground motion in a vari
ety of engineering fields are provided. Numerical examples are shown for il
lustration. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.