SCEC Award Number 15136 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title Implementation of Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GMSV) Gauntlets on the Broadband Platform
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Nicolas Luco United States Geological Survey Sanaz Rezaeian United States Geological Survey Christine Goulet University of California, Berkeley Andreas Skarlatoudis URS Corporation Jeff Bayless URS Corporation Philip Maechling University of Southern California
Other Participants Fabio Silva, Southern California Earthquake Center
SCEC Priorities 6e SCEC Groups GMSV, GMP, CME
Report Due Date 03/15/2016 Date Report Submitted 03/30/2016
Project Abstract
 The SCEC Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GMSV) Technical Activity Group (TAG) aims to develop and implement, via collaboration between ground motion modelers and engineering users, testing/rating methodologies for simulated ground motions to be used in engineering applications. From 2012 to 2014, the GMSV TAG coordinated 20 independent GMSV-related projects funded in response to the annual SCEC request for proposals, as well as 3 complementary projects funded via the SCEC Software Environment for Integrated Seismic Modeling project. At a 2014 progress and planning workshop of the GMSV TAG, the need for a multi-PI collaborative project that builds on the knowledge from these previous projects was discussed. Our project has begun to fill this need by implementing a “gauntlet” of 10 previously-published ground motion validation parameters and corresponding empirical ground motion models on the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP). Our focus on relatively simple validation parameters (e.g., strong motion duration) and the Broadband Platform is consistent with recommendations from the initial planning workshop of the GMSV TAG in 2011. Our report documents (i) a web conference of the GMSV TAG by which the suite of validation parameters to be implemented on the BBP was selected, (ii) an in-person meeting of the GMSV TAG that discussed the validation comparisons to be made with the implemented ground motion parameters, and (iii) a GMSV TAG workshop where the implemented validation parameters and comparisons were demonstrated to developers and users of the BBP. A GMSV TAG wiki that further documents our BBP implementations is in preparation.
Intellectual Merit The simulation of earthquake ground motions allows for physics-based interpolation/extrapolation of the relatively limited amount of available earthquake rupture and ground motion data. Validation of such models, the focus of the SCEC Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GSMV) Technical Activity Group (TAG), is both a fundamental challenge and a necessity for understanding the threat of earthquake ground motions.
Broader Impacts Through collaboration of earthquake scientists and engineers, the SCEC Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GMSV) Technical Activity Group (TAG) advances the use and understanding of simulated ground motions for engineering applications. Reciprocally, the GMSV TAG improves the science and products of ground motion simulation.
Exemplary Figure Please see the last page of the project report, which was prepared by Nicolas Luco for Greg Beroza and his presen-tation of the SCEC Science Accomplishments at the 2015 SCEC Annual Meeting. The slides summarizes the pub-lished ground motion validation parameters that this project has (or will in the case of the ratio of inelastic over elastic spectral displacement) implemented on the SCEC Broadband Platform.
Linked Publications

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