Validation of Ground-Motion Simulations through Simple Proxies for the Response of Engineered Systems

We propose a list of simple parameters that act as proxies for the response of more complicated engineered systems and therefore can be studied to validate new methods of ground-motion simulation for engineering applications. The primary list of parameters includes correlation of spectral acceleration across periods, ratio of maximum-to-median spectral acceleration across all horizontal orientations, and the ratio of inelastic-to-elastic displacement, all of which have reliable empirical mod-els against which simulations can be compared. We also describe several secondary parameters, such as directivity pulse period and structural collapse capacity, that do not have robust empirical models but are important for engineering analysis. We then demonstrate the application of these parameters to exemplify simulations computed using a variety of methods, including stochastic finite fault, Graves–Pitarka hybrid broadband, and a composite source model. In general, each simulation method matches empirical models for some parameters and not others, indicating that all rel-evant parameters need to be carefully validated. Online Material: Tables of ground-motion records and simulations selected to have comparable response spectra, and MATLAB code to compute simple proxies for the response of engineering systems.