Earthquake ground motion

Most of the effort in seismic design of buildings and other structures is focused on structural design. This chapter addresses another key aspect of the design process—characterization of earthquake ground motion into parameters for use in design. Section 3.1 describes the basis of the earthquake ground motion maps in the Provisions and in ASCE 7 (the Standard). Section 3.2 has examples for the determination of ground motion parameters and spectra for use in design. Section 3.3 describes site-specific ground motion requirements and provides example site-specific design and MCER response spectra and example values of site-specific ground motion parameters. Section 3.4 discusses and provides an example for the selection and scaling of ground motion records for use in various types of response history analysis permitted in the Standard.