Representative ground-motion ensembles for several major earthquake scenarios in New Zealand

In this paper, representative ground motion ensembles for several major earthquake scenarios in New Zealand are developed. Cases considered include representative ground motions for the occurrence of Alpine, Hope and Porters Pass earthquakes in Christchurch city, and the occurrence of Wellington, Wairarapa and Ohariu fault ruptures in Wellington city. For each considered scenario rupture, ensembles of 20 and 7 ground motions are selected using the generalized conditional intensity measure (GCIM) approach, ensuring that the ground motion ensembles represent both the mean and distribution of ground motion intensity which such scenarios could impose. These scenario-based ground motion sets can be used to complement ground motions which are often selected in conjunction with probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, in order to understand the performance of structures for the question “what if this fault ruptures?”

Remote Hybrid Testing of Asymmetric Structures under Earthquake Excitation

Based on the pseudo-dynamic testing method and substructure technique, a remote hybrid dynamic testing method for asymmetric-plan buildings considering torsional effects is described. Besides, this paper presents the method and control principle for testing substructures in a single-story frame system under loading due to eccentric lateral responses of superstructure to earthquake motion. Several validated simulation tests of an asymmetric bridge system have been conducted successfully based on the remote testing platform NetSLab and the crossed-response of torsional and translational vibration of bridge structures under three representative ground motions was studied.