Use of discrete orthonormal s-transform to simulate earthquake ground motions

The S-transform and discrete orthonormal S-transform (DOST) produce time–frequency representations, which is in contrast to the wavelet transformations. Similar in the Fourier transform, the use of the S-transform and DOST provides frequency-dependent resolution with absolutely referenced phase information. Although the decomposed signal using DOST is expressed as a sum of orthonormal basis function, this is not the case if the S-transform is used. In the present study, a procedure to simulate nonstationary ground motions based on DOST is proposed based on a seed record or given a target amplitude of DOST coefficients. It is shown that the model has zero mean, and its variance equals the assigned target. Using five real records, each from a larger earthquake, the application of the DOST and S-transform to the records is carried out. Although the time–frequency resolution obtained from DOST is coarse as compared to that obtained using the S-transform, its use identifies clearly time–frequency characteristics. Samples of ground motions are simulated using the proposed method based on the amplitude of the DOST coefficients of a seed record or on the average amplitude of the DOST coefficients of a set of actual records. The comparison of the time–frequency resolution, Fourier spectrum, time-varying power distribution, and response spectrum of the simulated and seed records indicates that the proposed simulation model is a useful and practical tool to simulate nonstationary ground motions.