Simulation‐based characterization of the variability of earthquake risk to buildings in the near‐field

Abstract Recent advancements in high performance computing platforms and computational workflow for regional‐scale simulations are enabling unprecedented modeling of fault‐to‐structure earthquake processes. Regional simulations resolving ground motions at frequencies relevant to engineered systems are becoming computationally viable and provide a new capability to improve understanding of the geographical distribution and intensity of risk to buildings and critical infrastructure. As computational capabilities advance, it is essential to move beyond illustrative single rupture realizations for scenario earthquake events towards the development of a full suite of rupture realizations that appropriately characterize the range of risk to building systems. The work described in this article investigates the application of a suite of fault rupture realizations with the objective of assessing near‐fault, site‐specific seismic demand variability for building structures. A representative high‐performance regional‐scale computational model is utilized to execute ground motion and building response simulations based on 18 kinematic rupture realizations of an M7 strike‐slip scenario earthquake. The fault rupture models for the scenario earthquake are created by systematically perturbing the hypocenter location and stochastically generating rupture parameters (slip, rise time, rake angle) to represent a breadth of ground motion intensities resulting from the spatial and temporal variabilities of an earthquake rupture process. The resulting seismic demand variability for three‐story (short period) and forty‐story (long period) steel moment‐resisting frame buildings is characterized in terms of the median and distribution of peak inter‐story drift ratio for a range of near‐fault sites. The full suite of 18 fault rupture realizations and approximately 280,000 nonlinear dynamic building simulations indicate that the three‐story building undergoes higher median seismic demand and significantly greater variability of demand at a given site than the forty‐story building, which has important implications for the level of certainty in predicting building performance during an earthquake. The simulations performed provide deeper insight into the relationship between fault rupture parameterization and building response, which is essential information for developing a representative suite of rupture realizations for specific earthquake scenarios.