Empirical Correlations between Cumulative Absolute Velocity and Amplitude‐Based Ground Motion Intensity Measures

Empirical correlation equations are developed between cumulative absolute velocity ( CAV ) and other common ground motion intensity measures, namely, peak ground acceleration ( PGA ), peak ground velocity ( PGV ), 5% damped pseudo spectral acceleration ( SA ), acceleration spectrum intensity ( ASI ), spectrum intensity ( SI ), and displacement spectrum intensity ( DSI ). It is found that, for a given earthquake rupture, CAV has the strongest correlation with high and moderate frequency intensity measures (IMs), that is, ASI, PGA , PGV and high‐frequency SA , and to a lesser extent with low frequency IMs ( DSI and low‐frequency SA ). The largest positive correlations of approximately 0.7 however are not high in an absolute sense, a result of the cumulative nature of CAV . The equations allow estimation of the joint distribution of these intensity measures for a given earthquake rupture, enabling the inclusion of CAV , and its benefit as a cumulative intensity measure, in seismic hazard analysis, ground motion selection, and seismic response analysis.