Machine learning (ML) has evolved rapidly over recent years with the promise to substantially alter and enhance the role of data science in a variety of disciplines. Compared with traditional approaches, ML offers advantages to handle complex problems, provide computational efficiency, propagate and treat uncertainties, and facilitate decision making. Also, the maturing of ML has led to significant

We describe a two-stage nonlinear site amplification model that considers both the sediment depth and the fundamental frequency of the soil. Adopting a non-reference site approach, empirical site amplification ratios for 1591 Kyoshin and Kiban Kyoshin network sites are developed. This process involves analyzing 92,025 surface ground motion recordings from 305 earthquakes between 1997 and 2012. The

Earthquakes have manifested as a slow-onset hazard for the state of Oklahoma. While this shaking is resulting in considerable damage, we know little about how residents understand or are adjusting to this new hazard. To explore this issue, we deployed a survey in two Oklahoma communities with varying levels of earthquake exposure and experience to better understand the adjustments, such as purchasing

Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is widespread to evaluate the seismic response of structures. It employs one records set scaled to multiple intensity levels (IMLs) to estimate the structural response distribution. However, the dominating earthquake scenarios differ with the intensity, and a single set introduces bias that increases with scaling. The response is, however, better estimated using multiple

Performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) assessments are data-, effort-, and time-intensive, usually requiring a detailed structural model and limiting their integration with early design. Decades of research have produced an abundance of PBEE assessments for different structural systems and building taxonomies. The results of these PBEE studies can be assimilated to approximately represent

We present correlation coefficient estimates between a number of ground motion intensity measures (IMs), as measured from the NGA-West2 database, with focus on the correlation of vertical–vertical and vertical–horizontal ground motion components. The IMs considered include spectral accelerations with periods from 0.01 to 10 s, peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and significant duration

When evaluating seismically induced second-order effects in buildings, engineers and researchers are most familiar with these concerns in the context of multistory buildings with rigid diaphragms. However, similar concerns are valid for short single-story concrete or masonry-walled buildings with larger flexible diaphragms, which is a significant portion of the building stock in the United States.

A parametric mathematical form of vulnerability function is developed that gives a full probabilistic description of losses as a function of earthquake ground shaking intensity. The model is intended to be used with any loss measure that can take values between 0% and 100%, inclusive, including normalized financial losses (damage ratios), human casualty rates, or debris cover. It is a mixed discrete-continuous

Localization and indoor tracking of rescuers and victims are essential during emergency management in post-earthquake conditions because those allow search and rescue teams to be faster and more efficient. While several indoor tracking technologies have been developed over the past years, localization and tracking are still a challenge during emergency conditions when power and telecommunication networks

We construct a probabilistic seismic hazard model for mainland China by integrating historical earthquakes, active faults, and geodetic strain rates. We delineate large seismic source zones based on geologic and seismotectonic characteristics. For each source zone, a tapered Gutenberg–Richter (TGR) distribution is used to model the total seismic activity rates. The TGR a- and b-values are calculated

“The […] reason that technology so often disappoints and betrays us is that it promises to make easy things that, by their intrinsic nature, have to be hard” (Stephens, 2018). The goal of earthquake early warning (EEW) is to provide timely alerts that are sufficiently rapid to allow warnings1 that may reduce harm or impacts of earthquakes (e.g. Allen and Melgar, 2019). In that sense, EEW is both a

A shaking table test of a three-story reinforced concrete (RC) building was conducted. The tested building is vertically irregular because of the first story’s elevated height and the third story’s added RC walls. In addition to far-field ground motions, near-fault ground motions were exerted on this building. A numerical model of the three-story building was constructed. Comparing with the test results

This study examines the performance of nonlinear total stress one-dimensional (1D) wave propagation site response analysis for modeling site effects in physics-based ground motion simulations of the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquake sequence. This approach explicitly models three-dimensional (3D) ground motion phenomena at the regional scale, and detailed site effects at the local scale

The Next-Generation Liquefaction database is a resource for the geotechnical hazard community. It is publicly available online under the following digital object identifier (DOI): 10.21222/C2J040. The database organizes objective liquefaction data into tables and fields (columns of information), with the relationships among the tables and fields described by a schema. The data are organized into tables

This study assesses the number of injuries directly caused by structural and non-structural damage within New Zealand commercial buildings from notable shaking events between 2010 and 2014 and the treatment level required. After applying filtering to a comprehensive New Zealand earthquake-induced injury database, 947 injuries matched this study’s scope, of which 174 were fatal. Collapse or movement

Many physical model tests have examined the performance of rocking foundations during cyclic and seismic loading. These tests varied in model size, testing equipment, superstructure properties, footing shape, supporting soil environment, and loading protocol. “FoRCy, Foundation Rocking database of Cyclic and Monotonic Loading” is a new database (published at https://datacenterhub.org/), summarizing

In this study, a new horizontal ground-motion model is developed for crustal and subduction earthquakes in Taiwan. A novel two-step maximum-likelihood method is used as a regression tool to develop this model. This method simultaneously considers both the correlation between records and the biased sampling because of random truncation. Moreover, additional ground-motion data can be considered to derive

A comprehensive technique for identification of modal properties (i.e. natural periods and equivalent modal damping ratios) of building structures is presented. The proposed identification technique employs a combination of multiple system identification methods; it utilizes the benefits and suppresses the shortcomings of each method to provide a succinct set of modal properties for building structures

This article provides a comprehensive evaluation of ductile iron (DI) pipeline response to earthquake-induced ground deformation through the results of a large-scale testing program and a fault rupture test on a 150-mm DI pipeline with restrained axial slip joints. The test is used to validate a two-dimensional finite element (FE) model that accounts for soil–pipeline interaction with axial slip, pullout

The seismic failure of an old quay wall, built in 1932, located in the Port of Iquique during the Mw8.2, 1 April, 2014, Pisagua, Chile earthquake is studied. A geotechnical exploration, including boreholes, cone penetration test (CPT) soundings, and surface-based geophysical techniques were performed to characterize the materials forming the pier. The data and field observations were analyzed and used

Several experimental studies have shown that rocking shallow foundations have beneficial seismic performance features: recentering and energy dissipation with little damage. A new publicly available database, “FoRDy” (Foundation Rocking—Dynamic), summarizes the results of dynamic physical model tests of single-degree-of-freedom-like structures supported on rocking foundations. It contains data from

Probabilistic assessment of seismic hazard and risk over a geographical region presents the modeler with challenges in the characterization of the site amplification that are not present in site-specific assessment. Using site-to-site residuals from a ground motion model fit to observations from the Japanese KiK-net database, correlations between measured local amplifications and mappable proxies such

The newly constructed tallest building in California, the 73-story Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles, California, is designed in conformance with performance-based design procedures. The building is designed with concrete core–shear walls, three outriggers with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) located along the height, and two three-story truss-belt structural systems. The building is equipped with a

Thin reinforced concrete (RC) walls with single layer reinforcement have been used for houses and buildings in several Latin American countries. Although some design codes include recommendations for squat thin walls in low-rise constructions, its seismic performance has not been validated adequately in past earthquakes. This article presents the results of an experimental campaign of nine full-scale

A ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) is presented for computing the median and standard deviation of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5% damped pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) for periods between 0.01 s and 5.0 s for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) and engineering applications in Taiwan. An integrated strong motion dataset consisting of two subduction earthquake regions was

The Philippine archipelago is tectonically complex and seismically hazardous, yet few seismic hazard assessments have provided national coverage. This article presents an updated probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for the nation. Active shallow crustal seismicity is modeled by faults and gridded point sources accounting for spatially variable occurrence rates. Subduction interfaces are modeled with

This study presents a critical assessment of the reliability of current base plate connections in steel special moment resisting frames (SMRFs). Using a probabilistic outlook, this research evaluates the reliability of exposed column base (ECB) connections in SMRFs designed based on the current seismic design provisions; it suggests (and implements) a statistical approach to compute resistance factors

Despite significant progress made recently on simplifying the loss estimation procedures, they are not easy to use in engineering design practice. One of the reasons for this is insufficient information regarding the inevitable variations in the type and density of structural and non-structural components present in various building usages. This study aims to establish building usage groups with similar

The study focuses on the effects of liquefaction on structures taken from data on about 1000 private residential masonry buildings located in several municipalities struck by the 2012 Emilia earthquake. Survey data were collected by teams of experts coordinated by the Italian Department of Civil Protection in the immediate post-earthquake emergency phase. They included information on building characteristics

Since their inception over 20 years ago, the maximum considered earthquake ground motion maps in U.S. building codes have capped probabilistic values with deterministic ground motions from characteristic earthquakes on known active faults. This practice has increasingly been called into question both because of spatially non-uniform risk levels that are produced (risk being higher mainly in coastal

During 2017–2018, the National Seismic Hazard Model for the conterminous United States was updated as follows: (1) an updated seismicity catalog was incorporated, which includes new earthquakes that occurred from 2013 to 2017; (2) in the central and eastern United States (CEUS), new ground motion models were updated that incorporate updated median estimates, modified assessments of the associated epistemic

The United States Geological Survey national seismic hazard maps have historically been produced for a reference site condition of VS30 = 760 m/s. For other site conditions, site factors are used, which heretofore have been developed using ground motion data and simulations for shallow earthquakes in active tectonic regions. Research results from the Next Generation Attenuation–East (NGA-East) project

This article presents recommendations for nonlinear site amplification models in Central and Eastern North America (CENA), which are developed from one-dimensional site response analyses results and accompanies linear site amplification model in a companion article. Two median nonlinear amplification models using identical functional forms are produced as a function of VS30 and peak ground acceleration

This article evaluates linear simulation-based and empirical site amplification models including site natural period dependency parameters to account for the distinctive amplification behavior near site fundamental frequencies resulting from the sharp impedance contrast between soil and underlying hard bedrock in central and eastern North America (CENA). The simulation-based amplification models are

Small-strain damping profiles developed from geotechnical laboratory testing have been observed to be smaller than the damping inferred from the observed site amplification from downhole array recordings. This study investigates the high-frequency spectral decay parameter (κ0) of earthquake motions from soil sites and evaluates the use of κ0 to constrain the small-strain damping profile for one-dimensional

Fatalities directly or indirectly attributed to New Zealand earthquakes in the time period 1840–2017 inclusive were identified and classified by context and cause of death. There have been at least 489 deaths primarily attributed to 21 New Zealand earthquakes with Modified Mercalli Intensities (MMIs) of VII or greater, and an additional 11 deaths resulting from secondary earthquake causes (e.g. relief

The United States Geological Survey’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) alert system provides rapid (10–20 min) but general loss estimates of ranges of fatalities and economic impact for significant global earthquakes. FEMA’s Hazus software, in contrast, provides time-consuming (2–5 h) but more detailed loss information quantified in terms of structural, social, and economic

The ability to rapidly assess the spatial distribution and severity of building damage is essential to post-event emergency response and recovery. Visually identifying and classifying individual building damage requires significant time and personnel resources and can last for months after the event. This article evaluates the feasibility of using machine learning techniques such as discriminant analysis

Debris scattering is one of the main causes of road/street blockage after earthquakes in dense urban areas. Therefore, the evaluation of debris scattering is crucial for decision makers and for producing an effective emergency response. In this vein, this article presents the following: (1) statistical data concerning the debris extent of collapsed buildings caused by the 2016 Mw 7.0 Kumamoto earthquake

This article presents the development of a stochastic model for time series prediction of the number of post-earthquake fire ignitions in buildings for use in post-earthquake fire risk assessment. Two kinds of Poisson regression models with an explanatory variable of JMA instrumental seismic intensity were applied to 126 ignitions affected by ground motion, which were extracted from the ignition record

During the 19 September 2017 earthquake, steel buildings in the States of Morelos, Puebla, Mexico, and Mexico City were subjected to severe ground shaking. Despite in some cases, moderate damages in non-structural elements were developed; generally, null or minor structural damage was reported. The notable exceptions are (1) a three-stories building located at the southern area of Mexico City and (2)

Existing unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings represent a significant part of the constructed facilities. Unfortunately, in case of seismic actions, their structural behavior is negatively affected by the low capacity of masonry components to withstand lateral forces. For this reason, in the past decades, URM buildings have been responsible for fatalities and large economic losses even in the case

Modern reinforced concrete buildings are often designed to dissipate energy during strong earthquakes by permitting the controlled formation of plastic hinges. Plastic hinges require assessment of residual capacity in post-earthquake situations. However, few past studies have investigated this topic, and results from experiments focused on undamaged structures are not always transferable to post-earthquake

Since 2010, the construction of post-tensioned wooden buildings (Pres-Lam) has been growing rapidly worldwide. Pres-Lam technology combines unbonded post-tensioning tendons and supplemental damping devices to provide moment capacity to beam–column, wall–foundation, or column–foundation connections. In low seismic areas, designers may choose not to provide additional damping, relying only on the post-tensioning

Modern seismic design and the retrofitting of buildings necessarily need to account for expected economic losses. Available refined and simplified procedures implemented in automatic computer tools allow for probabilistic loss assessments. These mostly rely on consequence functions derived by simulating the repair actions needed to restore a component to its pre-earthquake condition. However, due to

This article evaluates a pulse intensity measure, the effective incremental ground velocity (EIGV), for predicting sliding displacements induced by real ground motions. EIGV is based on computing the additional incremental velocity of a pulse after a system begins to slide. Predictions of peak sliding displacements are made using multiple ground motion and pulse intensity measures, and it is found

A database of three-component acceleration time series recorded at downhole arrays in earthen dam cores was published by the Japan Commission on Large Dams. This study reviews the acceleration time series in nine earthfill and rockfill dams in Japan. The apparent shear wave velocities between downhole sensors in each dam during strong shakes are determined by calculating the wave travel time between

Geotechnical borehole information is often used for liquefaction hazard mapping, but can be highly variable in terms of quantity and quality. In addition, geotechnical borehole logs are often provided as images in reports rather than delivered in a structured, queryable database, which makes the logs and supplementary information difficult to organize particularly across a large geographic area. In