Modeling, synthetics and engineering applications of strong earthquake wave motion

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.