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Physics-based seismic input for engineering applications: a case study in the Aterno river valley, Central Italy

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Abstract

In this paper, we present 3D physics-based numerical simulations, in the near-source region at the regional scale, of the 2009, April 6, L’Aquila earthquake (central Italy), based on improved models of the Aterno river basin geology and source kinematics. The simulations were carried out by an open-source code, SPEED, based on a discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method. The numerical mesh of the Aterno basin was built on a detailed subsurface geological model and on the evaluation of the dynamic properties of the soils. The source model was selected among the kinematic solutions available in the literature as the one that fits best the near-source observations. Broadband ground motions were then generated through a hybrid method, combining 3D low frequency waveforms with high-frequency stochastic synthetics. To provide an example of application as seismic input to earthquake engineering analyses in the time domain, results of this approach were used for 2D site response analyses at Castelnuovo, a village severely damaged by the earthquake, and in the neighborhood of which no seismic record was available. SPEED simulation satisfactorily reproduces the recorded accelerograms in the frequency range 0.1–0.7 Hz. The site response analysis at the local scale shows that the amplification of the hill is more significant at its natural frequency, due to topographic and stratigraphic factors, than at the peak of the seismic input simulated by SPEED, that is at about 3 s along the fault-normal component. The presented application supports the conclusion that 3D physics-based numerical simulations do have the potential to become an alternative for determination of input ground motion for earthquake engineering analyses, especially for those scenarios for which real records are not available.

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Acknowledgements

This work was developed within the DPC-ReLUIS Special Project RS2, on numerical simulations and near-source effects. Iunio Iervolino acknowledges the work carried out within the Ground Motion Simulation Validation (GMSV) technical activity group (TAG) of the Southern-California Earthquake Center (SCEC). All the authors gratefully acknowledge the working group of the SCOPE data center (University of Naples Federico II) for their fundamental contribution to computations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Coastal Marine Environment, National Research Council, Naples, Italy

    Lorenza Evangelista

  2. Department of Physics, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Sergio del Gaudio & Gaetano Festa

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Chiara Smerzini & Roberto Paolucci

  4. Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Anna d’Onofrio, Antonio Santo & Francesco Silvestri

  5. Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Iunio Iervolino

  6. ASTALDI s.p.a., Rome, Italy

    Luigi Landolfi

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  1. Lorenza Evangelista
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  2. Sergio del Gaudio
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  3. Chiara Smerzini
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  4. Anna d’Onofrio
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  5. Gaetano Festa
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  6. Iunio Iervolino
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  7. Luigi Landolfi
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  8. Roberto Paolucci
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  9. Antonio Santo
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  10. Francesco Silvestri
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Correspondence to Lorenza Evangelista.

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Luigi Landolfi: Formerly at University of Naples, Federico II, Naples, Italy.

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Evangelista, L., del Gaudio, S., Smerzini, C. et al. Physics-based seismic input for engineering applications: a case study in the Aterno river valley, Central Italy. Bull Earthquake Eng 15, 2645–2671 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-017-0089-7

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