Strong Ground Motion Signal Analysis and Nonlinear Response Spectra for Seismic Code Implementation

Strong ground motion signals are the main information source regarding the energy input that affects existing structures. Large earthquakes in some regions are rare, so strong seismic records are scarce in many countries and in many types of surface soil. When available, it is necessary to extract all possible information from those signals about seismic parameters for understanding the seismic impact on infrastructure and to improve some design parameters in local seismic codes. After the Pedernales Mw7.8 earthquake in Ecuador, several strong motion accelerograms were registered in different types of soils for the first time in the country, given the opportunity to apply updated signal analysis methods, to compute different kinds of linear and nonlinear response spectra, and to propose changes to the current Ecuadorian seismic code. Results of this analysis and some proposed upgrades to the current code are presented in this paper.