Strong Ground Motion

Conclusions

The availability of empirical strong ground motion data will always be less that what would be needed to meet the needs of a variety of ever demanding engineering problems. A set of strong ground motions, either recorded or theoretically simulated, is the necessary database for the civil engineering design, regarding both new construction and performance assessment of the existing built environment. The future of performance based earthquake resistant design and sophisticated non-linear dynamic analysis will rely on the development of analytical tools that can simulate realistic ground motions in terms of tectonic structure, earthquake physics, local geological and geotechnical conditions. This need is more acute for large magnitude earthquakes in near-field conditions. The state-of-the art and success in strong ground motion simulation is developing at a fast rate and we all hope that it meets the demand in foreseeable future.