A site-specific earthquake ground response analysis using a fault-based approach and nonlinear modeling: the Case Pente site (Sulmona, Italy)

Abstract

In this paper we present the ground response analyses (GRA) of a site where an industrial facility is planned. Because of its location on an active normal fault system known as a relevant seismic gap, the Mt. Morrone Fault system (MMF), and at the edge of a basin filled with slow velocity continental deposits, a inter-disciplinary and non-standard approach has been applied to assess the seismic input of the dynamic numerical analyses. It includes geological, seismological, geotechnical and engineering contributions. Two fault scenarios, MMF1 and MMF2, were considered and scenario-based (SSHA) and probabilistic (time-dependent, TD, and time-independent, TI) seismic hazard (PSHA) analyses were implemented. Comparison among the spectra corresponding to the 90th percentile of the SSHA statistical distribution and the PSHA average ones, shows that the MMF2 has values similar to the TD model. The SSHA 90th percentile distribution was selected as target spectra to retrieve the seismic input for GRA. Nonlinear numerical simulations of seismic wave propagation were implemented to derive surface ground motion parameters. GRA acceleration response spectra and their PGA are notably higher, and thus on the safety site, than those obtained following the Italian code approach for seismic resistant buildings. These results confirm that a scenario-based methodology can better capture the shaking effect in near-field conditions, avoiding possibly unconservative underestimations of the seismic actions and in view of a more robust performance-based approach used by engineers for either new design and/or assessment/retrofit purposes of the built environment.