Assessment of Ground Motion Selection and Modification (GMSM) Methods for Non-Linear Dynamic Analyses of Structures

As non-linear response history analyses are becoming more prevalent in practice, there is a need to better understand how the selection and modification (e.g., amplitude scaling or spectrum matching) of records will influence the resulting structural response predictions. There are currently many methods of ground motion selection and modification available, but little guidance is available to engineers on which methods are appropriate for their specific application. The Ground Motion Selection and Modification Program was formed within the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center to address this issue. This paper presents the current methodology developed by the Program as well as sample results from the first pilot study completed in 2006. Preliminary results show that for a first-mode-dominated structure, one can improve the prediction of its response by taking into account record properties that are important to the non-linear response of the building when selecting and scaling ground motion records.