4.2.

1 Stochastic Ground Motion Model

The stochastic simulation of strong ground motions, which relies on seismic source
physics, has found substantial application in earthquake engineering, with successful
comparisons of predicted and recorded data. The stochastic ground motion employed in present
study uses an omega-squared (
2
) Brunes source model (Brune, 1970, 1971) with a single
corner frequency and a constant stress drop. The
2
has become a seismological standard
because of its simplicity and ability to predict spectral amplitudes and shapes over an extremely
broad range of magnitudes, distances, and frequencies, as well as tectonic regions worldwide. In
particular, the
2
model has been used to satisfactorily predict spectral shapes for earthquake
magnitudes 2 (Fehler and Phillips, 1991) to 8.25 (Harzell and Heaton, 1988), high frequency
amplitudes and duration upto magnitude 9.5 (Boore, 1986). It is the only source model that has
demonstrably predicted ground motion amplitudes of interest to engineering applications over
the entire magnitude range of the observational records. A schematic diagram of element of
stochastic model ground motion is presented in Fig. (4.1).

4.2.2.1 Model Description
This method, well-known as the stochastic point-source method, is applied for a specified
source and propagation model. The method involves two main steps: i) generation of a
windowed time series of band-limited random white Gaussian noise with zero mean amplitude
and ii) development of a target Fourier amplitude spectrum derived theoretically using the
equation (4.1) as follows:
(R, ) = C S() P(R, ) F()...(4.1)

where S(f) is source acceleration spectrum, P(R, f) characterizes attenuation of seismic wave
travelling from source-to-site and F(f) is the site amplification. R is the hypocentral distance,
asterisk () represents multiplication and C is a constant as follows:
C =
R
0q
PH
4np[
3
(4.2)
where
R
0q
is a parameter to account for the average radiation over a range of azimuths and take off
angles (taken as 0.55)
F is a parameter of free surface amplification (taken as 2)
H is a parameter to account for partitioning of energy into two horizontal components (taken as
0.71)
is the regional density (taken as 2.8 g/cm
3
)
is the shear wave velocity in the vicinity of the source (taken as 3.3 km/s)



Figure 4.1 Elements of the theoretical Fourier amplitude spectrum of the earthquake ground
motion modeling.

The spectrum obtained from the windowed time series in the first step is multiplied by
the theoretically derived target Fourier amplitude spectrum obtained from equation (4.1) in
the second step. A suite of representative time series can be generated by repeating the first step
many times by changing the seed of the random number generator. These time series in turn
yield a suite of random Fourier spectra that are multiplied by the theoretically derived target
Fourier amplitude spectrum A(R, f). It is not certain that each realization obtained in the first step
will be close to the target spectrum; that is, only the mean of the individual spectra for a number
of simulations will match the target spectrum.

4.3 SOURCE EFFECTS
The source acceleration spectrum S(f) in equation (4.1) accounts for the waves radiated
by the source and can be written in the functional form of a moment-rate spectrum as follows:
S() =
2
H

0
(),(4.3)
where H

0
() is the moment-rate spectrum. For an -square model,
S() = (2n)
2
M
0
|1+(] ]
c
)
2
]
,...(4.4)

where M
0
and f
c
are the seismic moment and the corner frequency, respectively, which can be
related by (Brune, 1970, 1971)

c
= 4.9 1u
6
[(o H
0
)
1 3
,..(4.5)

with the stress drop in bars, f
c
in hertz, in kilometers per second, and M
0
in dyne-
centimeters.
Source
High
Frequency
Diminution
Site Amplification
Path Attenuation

4.4 PATH EFFECTS
The geometric attenuation function P(R, f) accounts for both the geometrical spreading of
seismic energy traveling from source to site and the anelastic attenuation of seismic waves. The
path term can be represented by:
P(R, ) = 0(R)c
-n]R [

(])
,.(4.6)

where G(R) denotes the geometrical spreading and the remaining factor represents the anelastic
attenuation. In particular, Q(f) is the quality factor of the region as determined from the past
earthquake data. The energy of seismic waves is attenuated as they travel from source to site. If
the hypocentral distance is less than 100 km, the attenuation is inversely proportional to the
distance travelled; otherwise, it follows some power law that changes regionally. In the present
study, the geometrical spreading factor is accounted for as follows (Singh et al., 1999):
0(R) = _
1R R 1uu km
1(1uuR)
1 2
R > 1uu km
...(4.7)


4.5 SITE EFFECTS
Earthquake waves propagate from the source region, with a typical shear-wave velocity
of 3.6 km/s, toward the surface, where the average shear-wave velocity is as low as 500 m/s. The
spectrum is amplified through this velocity gradient by a seismic impedance effect. The geology
of the site is also responsible for amplification of ground motion. The soil sites amplify more
than do rock sites. The surface topography of Garhwal Himalaya also affects the interaction of
seismic waves, thus producing a complex amplification and diminution pattern in the region. To
account for site amplification and diminution effects, the site term can be written as:
F() = A()()..(4.8)

where A(f) is the site amplification function and D(f) is the diminution function used to
account for path-independent loss of energy.
The site Amplification A(f) can estimated using several methods and a brief review of these
methods are presented in chapter 2.

LOCAL SITE EFFECTS
The seismic hazard assessment, assumed to be the occurrence probability of a seismic events
of intensity greater than a certain threshold in a certain area, in certain time range, is based on a
methodology (for example Cornell, 1968) aimed at the definition of a series of parameters of
ground motion of the considered area (site). The results of this kind of analysis are referred to the
seismic bedrock that means a rock with a flat morphology, without taking into account the
geological, geotechnical, and geomorphological framework of the area. The great variability,
irregularity and anomalies in the damage distribution, even considering structures with the same
vulnerability, found during surveys on earthquakes damages, demonstrated the significance of local
site effects on the ground motion.
Several destructive earthquakes, such as the Loma Prieta in California 17
th
October 1989,
the Northridge earthquake in California in January 1994, the Kobe earthquake in Japan in January
1995, and the western Tottori earthquake in Japan in October 2000, have demonstrated the
amplification of ground motion and associated anomaly in damage to the structure due to the local
site conditions in specific areas.
The best rock reference earthquake while passing though the soft soil suffers a series of variation,
I. in terms of amplitude of ground motion
II. in terms of duration and frequency content of seismic ground motion
This is named as local site effect.
Sometimes at sites having soft soil and/or topographic and basement undulations, seismic
energy get trapped, leading to amplification of vibrations that may cause considerable damage to
man-made structures. Theoretical analysis and observation data have shown that each site has a
specific resonance frequency at which the ground motion get amplified (Bard, 2000). Man-made
structure having resonance frequency matching that of the sites has the maximum likelihood of
getting damaged. It is reported that large concentration of damage in specific areas during an
earthquake is caused due to factor related to surface geological condition and local soil structure
(Sitharam and Govindaraju, 2004). The 1923 Kanto earthquake has clearly shown that major seismic
damage was controlled by local geology (Kanai, 1951; Kanai et al. 1954).
Soil deposit tends to act as a filter to seismic waves by attenuating ground motion at
certain frequencies and amplifying it at other. Soil layers over firm bedrock attenuate or amplify the
base rock earthquake motion depending upon geotechnical characteristics and depth of the soil
stratum (Kamatchi et al. 2010a) and also arrangement of layering. Usually younger soft soils cause
higher amplification of bedrock motion relative to the one caused by older, more competent soils.
Local amplification of ground motion is often controlled by soft surface layer, which lead to
trapping of seismic energy, due to impedance contrast between the soft surface soil and the
underlying bed rock.
Various methods have been used in seismology to estimated effects due to local site condition. Some
are based on the experimental work while others based on empirical methods that used earthquake
records. Some methods utilize analytical/theoretical approach to estimate local site effects.
Broadly these methods can be classified into five different categories;
1. Experiment-Empirical Methods
2. Empirical Methods
3. Semi-empirical Methods
4. Analytical Methods
5. Hybrid Methods

2.4.1 Experimental-Empirical Methods
These are the techniques that utilize the strong motion recordings of an earthquake or
ambient noise to estimate the features of local site effect. This is usually done in frequency domain.
A large number of experimental methods have been developed to estimate the local site effect.
Based on the availability of nearby reference site that, these methods can be further classified in two
groups:
1. Reference Site Methods
2. Non References Site Methods

2.4.1.1 Reference Site Methods
Generally, it is assumed that it easier to handle earthquake recordings in frequency domain
than time domain for several analyses. In frequency domain, an earthquake recorded represented as
Fourier Amplitude Spectrum (FAS) of ground motion is assumed to be product of three effects, the
source effects, the path effects and the site effects. Hence in order to estimate the effect of local
geology i.e. site effect, the influence of the rest two terms is removed from FAS of ground motion.
Using this principle a few techniques have been developed. These techniques require a reference
site nearby the target site and is supposed to be free from all site effects.

2.4.1.1.1 Standard Spectral Ratio Method (SSR)
This is the most frequently used technique applied in wide variety of environments
(Borcherdt and Gibbs, 1976; Tucker and King, 1984; Jarpe et al. 1988; Singh et al. 1988). In this
technique the ratio of Fourier amplitude spectra of a soil-site record to that of a nearby rock-site
record is considered as effect of local soil-site. It is assumed that the records from the reference
site (in general, a station installed on hard rock outcrop) have the same source and propagation
effects as records from the other sites. The ratio of surface Fourier spectral at point S and rock
Fourier spectrum at point A gives the estimation of effect of local soil at point S. This method is
generally applicable only to data from dense local arrays.

2.4.1.1.2 Generalized Inversion Scheme (GIS)
In this technique, site response is estimated by solving observed data (spectral amplitude)
of a number of recorded events for all source/path effect and site effects simultaneously. This
was first introduced by Andrew (1986) to estimate source parameters. These techniques of
computing site response depend on the availability of an adequate nearby reference site with
negligible site response. The availability of such sites is not usually always available. Hence
applicability of this technique has this strong limitation (Steidl et al. 1996).

2.4.1.1 Non-Reference Site Methods
To overcome the limitation of the method discussed above, several other methods have
been developed where the site effect can be estimated even in absence of reference site. A few
commonly used methods are discussed below:

2.4.1.2.1 Ambient Noise Technique
This is a technique in which the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (H/V) of micro-tremors
(ambient noise) recorded at the target site is calculated as representative of site response in target
site. This technique was applied by Nogoshi and Igarshi (1970, 1971) and explored by Nakamura
(1989). One of main features of this technique is its simplicity to apply at many sites by installing
noise recording instruments at the targets sites. This method provides a reliable estimate of the
natural frequency of target sites. Rosa-Cintas et al. (2011) characterized several urban areas of the
Bajo-Segura basin (Southeast Spain) using H/V, f-k, and Extended Spatial Autocorrelation (ESA)
methods.
Mundepi et al. (2010) used ambient noise measurements taken at 116 sites around the city of
Delhi, India to estimate fundamental resonance frequencies through the H/V technique. At the
same time, array measurements were also taken at three different areas of the city, where it is
expected that the mean soil thickness may differ. The fk technique was applied for obtaining the
dispersion curves and the neighborhood algorithm was used for estimating the S-wave velocity
profiles in each area. Combining the information provided by both the methods, the soil sediments
of the city of Delhi were characterized by obtaining different zones of resonance frequency, soil
thickness and mean S-wave velocity. Moreover, an estimation of the best suitable S-wave velocity
profiles was proposed.
2.4.1.2.2 Coda Technique
This method uses the Coda wave portion of the seismogram to estimate to site response. It
was first introduced by Tsujiura (1978) and Phillips and Aki (1986). Su and Aki (1995) generated
empirical site response maps of Southern California using this method. The advantage of using the
coda wave method is the availability of relatively abundant vertical component network data for
which the corresponding direct S-wave arrivals are generally clipped. The technique has been applied
successfully in several studies to estimate the site response (Mayeda et al. 1991; Su et al. 1992;
Koyanagi et al. 1991; Sharma et al. 2008).

2.4.1.2.3 General Inverse Technique
The limitation of reference site problem in generalized inversion technique was re-casted to
general inverse technique (Andrew, 1986; Bonamassa and Mueller, 1988; Castro et al. 1990;
Boatwright et al. 1991) by simultaneously solving the observed data of multiple recorded events in
terms of site effects, source effect, and quality factor. The generalized inversion scheme was
especially utilized to decompose the site term from S-wave spectra.

2.4.1.2.4 HVSR Technique
Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral ratio (HVSR) is a similar technique to SSR method. In this
method, the spectral ratio of the horizontal and the vertical components of the shear-wave portion
of weak recordings is considered to be the estimate of the site response. This technique, in fact, is a
combination of Receiver function method (Langston, 1979) and Nakamura (1989)s ambient noise
technique. Langston (1979) used HVSR ratio for teleseismic P waves to determine the velocity
structure of crust and Nakamura estimated H/V ratio using ambient noise recordings. Lermo and
Chavez-Garcia (1993) applied this technique on strong motion records to estimate site responses of
different sites in Mexico. The same technique has been well applied by several authors on weak and
strong motion data (Chavez-Garcia et al. 1997; Latchet et al. 1996; Theodulidis and Bard, 1996).

2.4.1.2.5 Analytical Methods
This technique is particularly useful and provides a reliable estimate of site response for
the areas where geological structure and geotechnical characteristics of target area is well known.
The estimation of site effects in these methods is based on the wave equation. One of these
methods is quarter wavelength method of Boore and Joyner (1997). Many authors develop their
own models to estimate site effect using theoretical/analytical methods (Aki and Learner, 1970;
Bouchan, 1973; Boore, 1972; Lee and Langston, 1983; Frankel, 1993; Geli et al. 1988; Jiang et al.
1993; Cerveny 1985; Viruex, 1984, 1986; Wang et al. 2001).




This study used Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) method as there is no reference
site available in the study regions. To estimate the H/V spectral ratio, the acceleration time series
of each recording station is windowed for a selected time length depending upon the magnitude
of considered earthquake. The time window began from on-set of shear-wave. The windowed
time series is transformed into the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm
(FFT). The obtained Fourier spectra are smoothened using a weighted nine-point smoothing
scheme. The obtained H/V spectral ratio can be used rough estimator of site amplification
function. Hence The A(f) in equation (4.8) can be replaced by H/V ratios.
The D(f) function in equation (4.8) can be modeled either by using Butterworth filter (Boore,
1986), or using kappa filter (Anderson and Hough, 1984) to formulate the diminution factor
using equation (4.9) and (4.10) respectively:
() = {1 +(
mux
)
8
]
-0.5
(4.9)

() = c
-nk]
...(4.10)

Anderson and Hough (1984) found that the increases with epicentral distance which is
consistent with the effect of anelastic attenuation c
(-n] [(])
, where Q(f) is the quality factor.
Within the resolution of the data, kappa, tends toward a finite value as epicentral distance
approaches zero; we interpret this finite value as characteristic of local geological conditions
below and near the site within distance of hundreds of meters to a few kilometers (Anderson and
Hough, 1984). This finite value of
0
is the representation of diminution factor within the region
of concern and is also referred to as zero-distance kappa.
0
has become an accepted and
commonly applied high-frequency filter parameter used in ground motion simulation and seismic
hazard analyses.
It can be observed from equation (4.10) that the Fourier amplitudes decay linearly with
0
in
logarithmic scale. This indicates that the value of
0
can be inferred from the slope of the best fit
line to the Fourier spectra with frequency in log-linear scale. Because kappa factor influences the
shape of Fourier spectra at the high frequency end of the spectrum, the straight line is fitted
between the corner frequency and the highest frequency present in the strong motion data.
In the present study, is determined at each station from the slope of the spectral decay
of the log Fourier amplitude spectrum at higher frequencies, greater than 5 Hz, plotted on a linear
frequency scale. Then,
0
has been determined from the best fitted line ( =

R +
0
) through
the distribution of as a function of distances. The distribution of as a function of distances is
plotted separately for horizontal and vertical components of ground motion. The
0
is estimated
from the horizontal and vertical component of ground motion and is denoted as
h
and

respectively.
Once the site amplification functions and site diminution factors are estimated for the
each study region, the site effect function F(f) in equation (4.8) may be re-written as:
F() = EIc
-nk]
(4.11)

4.6 ESTIMATION OF QUALITY FACTOR AND SOURCE SPECTRA
To estimate quality factor and source spectra of considered mainshocks, one of the
commonly used techniques is the direct regression on shear-wave portion of observed strong
ground motion has been employed in this study.
Equation (4.1) representing far-field Fourier acceleration spectral amplitude of shear-wave part
of the ground motion, Y(R, f) at station located at distance, R can be re-written as:
(R, ) = C S() 0(R)c
-
n]R
Q(])
F() (4.12)
taking the logarithm of equation (4.12), we get:
log (R, ) = log C +log 0(R) +log S() -(1.S6R [ )
-1
() +log F()..(4.13)

In equation (4.13), all the terms are known except Q

-1
(f), S(f), and F(f). These unknown
terms can be obtained by simultaneously solving equation (4.13) if we have an ensemble of
strong-motion recordings at all sites due to all events but in the present cases that is not so (Table
3.4, 3.6, 3.7). Therefore using any inversion technique to simultaneously solve the equation
(4.13) would give erroneous estimates of quality factor, site amplification, and source term.
However in previous section we have already estimated the site term F(f) which can be utilized
to simplify equation (4.13) further. Now the functional form of equation (4.13) represents an
equation of a straight line whose intercept is given by the source term, log S(f) and slope by the
Q

-1
(f). At each frequency, quality factor is obtained by fitting the equation (4.13) to the observed
Fourier amplitudes of horizontal components.

4.7 DURATION MODEL
The final input element of the stochastic method is the duration model. The duration of motion
has been shown to increase in a complex and apparently frequency dependent manner with
distance, due to the effect of scattering and dispersion (Raoof et al., 1999). We adopted
simplified representation of this distance-dependent duration as (Atkinson and Silva, 2000):
I = I
0
+bR .(4.14)

where T
0
is the source duration and bR represent the distance dependent term that account for
dispersion. For the source duration, we assume a source duration as 1/f
c
where f
c
is corner
frequency and b = 0.05 (Boore and Atkinson, 1987).

4.8 SIMULATION OF TIME HISTORY
The stochastic simulation also called band limited white noise model uses the Gaussian
white noise to generate synthetic time history (Boore, 1983). In the time domain procedure,
elaborated in Boore (1983), a Gaussian white noise is windowed with a shaping function having
prescribed duration. The window is chosen in such a way that the mean level of the spectrum of
the windowed white noise is unity. The windowed time series is transformed in to the frequency
domain (using the Fast Fourier Transform). Its FAS is scaled to the square root of the mean
squared absolute spectrum and multiplied by the site specific shape of the theoretical FAS of the
free field acceleration of the horizontal ground motion at the site. Transformation back into the
time domain results in the simulated (synthetic) time history of the horizontal component of the
ground motion (Hanks and McGuire, 1981; Boore, 1983, 1986, 2003; Boore and Atkinson, 1987;
Silva and Lee, 1987; Toro and McGuire, 1987; Silva et al., 1990; Silva and Darragh, 1995;
Atkinson and Boore, 1995, 2006; Gregor et al. 2002). An schematic diagram of time domain
procedure is shown in Fig. (4.2).

Figure 4.2 Basis of the time domain procedure for simulating strong motions using
stochastic method (After Boore, 2003)

In Fig. (4.2b), an envelope function is applied on Gaussian white noise in to give white
noise a realistic shape of time history. The shaping function may be box type or exponential
window and shape parameters of window depend upon several factors. Saragoni and Hart (1974)
studied a number of recorded ground motion and obtain following function giving a realistic
shape to white noise.
w(t; e, p, t
q
) = o(t t
q
)
b
exp[-c(t t
q
),..(4.15)
where the parameters a, b, and c are determined such that w(t) has a peak with value of unity
when t = e t
q
and w(t) = when t = t

. The equation for a, b, and c is as follows:

b = -(e lnp)|1 +e(ln e -1)], .(4.16)
c = b e , (4.17)
and
o = (exp (1)e)
b
..(4.18)
a is chosen such that the integral of the square of w(t) equals unity. This appropriate if the
spectrum of the windowed noise is not normalized so that it has mean square amplitude of unity.
The time t

is given as:
t
q
=
1
gm
I
gm
...(4.19)
where T
gm
is the duration of ground motion. A value of e = u.2 and p = u.uS give a realistic
shape window function and have been used in this study (Fig. 4.3).

Figure 4.3 Exponential window and the variable controlling its shape (after Saragoni and
Hart, 1974)

5.2.2 Estimation of Kappa factor for the three Regions under Study
Describing the shape of the Fourier amplitude spectrum of ground motion recordings is
very important for earthquake engineering purposes (e.g., McGuire, 1978). The shape of the
spectrum is well documented for low frequencies. Initially, the amplitudes increase at
2
(where
= 2f) until a corner frequency,
c
(Aki, 1967; Brune, 1970). Beyond the corner frequency, the
shape of the spectrum is characterized differently. Some studies have suggested that above the
corner frequency, the spectrum is flat up to a cut-off frequency,
mux
(Hanks, 1982), above
which the spectrum rapidly decay as (Boore, 1983):
|1 +(
mux
)
8
] .(5.2)
An alternative model (Anderson and Hough, 1984) characterized the shape of the spectrum at
high frequency as exponentially decaying, given by:
o() = A
0
exp(-n) or >
L
.(5.3)
where
L
is a frequency above which the decay is approximately linear on a plot of log |o()]
against f, A
0
is source and propagation path dependent amplitude and (kappa) is a spectral
decay parameter controlling the rate of amplitude fall-off with frequency.
Although being a commonly-accepted parameter for representing the behavior of Fourier
spectra at high frequencies, the mechanism causing this observed fall-off of high frequency
above some threshold frequency has been very much debated. A few researchers (e.g., Hanks,
1982) suggest that the attenuation arises from a local site effect in the near surface material,
while others (e.g., Papageorgiou and Aki, 1983) consider this due to source effect, where the
source doesnt produce high frequencies due to fault non-elasticity. Some also suggested that it is
the process due to combination of all three, source, path and site, with distance having least
significance of the three ( Tsai and Chen, 2000).
Generally, it is observed that the vertical component is less affected by the local site
effect than the horizontal component. This effect is also observed in the presently estimated
kappa (
h
>
v
). Due to lack of many strong-motion recordings in the study region, it is difficult
to make conclusions for kappa at an individual site or earthquake, but as a network data average,
it provides a rough estimate of kappa for the region. Fig. 5.4, Fig. 5.5, and Fig. 5.6 show the
distribution of kappa, as function of epicentral distances for the three sectors of Himalaya.

.
Figure 5
compone

5.4 Kappa
ent of ground
a factor dist
d motion for
tribution wit
r Garhwal H
th epicentral
Himalaya.
l distance foor (a) horizoontal, (b) ve

ertical