Simulation of near-field ground motion characteristics of May 01, 2013, Doda earthquake using modified semi-empirical approach

Strong ground motions are the most desirable for the earthquake-resistant design of structures. If the site at which a major construction is required has less ground motion records, then artificial ground motions will serve the purpose. In highly seismic areas like Kashmir and the Himalaya region, artificial ground motions are quite helpful. Artificial accelerograms can be generated either through analytical or numerical procedures. Several methods were suggested in the literature for generating artificial ground motions. However, suitability of method for the region is to be understood before application. The main objective of this paper is to generate synthetic accelerograms of May 01, 2013, Doda earthquake using modified semi-empirical approach. A MATLAB code is written to generate the ground motion records of 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake and also validate the results. Based on effectiveness of the code, the ground motion records of 2013 Doda earthquake is generated at three near-field seismic stations. The study reveals that the semi-empirical approach has effectively generated the ground motions at many stations. Simulated ground motions of the 2013 Doda earthquake are satisfactorily good at Chamba, Jammu and Palampur stations along FN and FP components. Also, the acceleration response spectra are fairly good at periods longer than 2.0 s.