Engineering studies of the San Fernando earthquake

Abstract

A number of accelerograms obtained during the San Fernando earthquake were analyzed to investigate the nature of the strong motion. The particular features studied were soil-structure interaction and the relative influence of local site conditions versus the source mechanism and travel paths of earthquake waves. Evidence of soil-structure interaction in the EW fundamental mode of the Hollywood Storage building is seen in the earthquake data. General agreement exists up to - 5 c.p.s. in both lateral directions between theoretical, base to free field transfer functions and transfer functions derived from accelerograms obtained in the basement and adjacent parking lot. There was no evidence of soil-structure interaction in the Millikan Library and Athenaeum buildings on the Caltech campus, and this effect could not account for the major differences in their accelerograms. Accelerogram, Fourier Amplitude Spectra, and Response Spectra data were compared from a group of six tall buildings close together near Wilshire Blvd. and Normandie Ave. in Los Angeles and from seven surrounding buildings, two to three miles away. The data indicated that local site conditions and soll-structure interaction were not major contributors to the observed differences in the response at these sites. There was correlation between the degree of similarity in the response at two sites and their distance apart. A simple wave superposition model with numerical examples confirms this correlation.