Novel approach for energy-spectrum-based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in regions with limited strong earthquake data

With the rapid development of energy-based seismic design, probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) in terms of the input energy spectrum, EI, has become increasingly important. Generally, implementing EI-based PSHA requires a ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) for EI. However, although a GMPE for EI can be constructed in regions with abundant earthquake data based on regression analyses, it is difficult to obtain in regions lacking strong ground-motion records. Therefore, this study proposes a new approach for performing EI-based PSHA in regions with limited earthquake data. Instead of using a GMPE for EI directly, a model of Fourier amplitude spectrum (FAS) is adopted, which can be determined using a small number of earthquake data with small-to-moderate magnitudes. Then, the EI of the ground motion is obtained from FAS based on the relationship between EI and FAS. Furthermore, to calculate the annual intensity exceedance rate within the proposed framework of adopting the FAS model, a highly efficient method, namely, the moment method, is applied. Several numerical examples indicate that the proposed approach not only is suitable for regions lacking strong ground-motion records but also performs very efficiently in calculating the annual intensity exceedance rate.