Modification of ground-motion models to estimate orientation-dependent horizontal response spectra in strike-slip earthquakes

A model to estimate the 5% damped response spectra of horizontal components at specific orientations is presented. The model, which explicitly accounts for directionality, is based on prior research by the authors that identified that the orientation of maximum horizontal spectral response at a site in strike-slip earthquakes tends to occur at or close to the transverse orientation with respect to the epicenter. Using a database of 1962 ground motions recorded in shallow crustal earthquakes with strike-slip faulting, it is shown that there is a significantly larger probability of exceeding orientation-independent RotD50 intensities in the transverse orientation than in the radial orientation. Furthermore, the results indicate that, on average, spectral responses in the transverse orientation are significantly larger than those in the radial orientation and that these differences become more significant as the period of the oscillator increases. For example, spectral responses in the transverse orientation are, on average, 12% larger than those in the radial orientation for 1 s oscillators and 78% larger for 10 s oscillators. A period- and orientation-dependent model is developed and calibrated to estimate 5% damped response spectral ordinates at specific orientations by modifying orientation-independent RotD50 intensities. The proposed orientation-dependent model can explicitly account for directionality by modifying the means and standard deviations of any ground-motion model that estimates RotD50 response spectral ordinates for strike-slip earthquakes to obtain probability distributions of response spectral ordinates but now at specific horizontal orientations.