Towards preparation of design spectra for Serbian National Annex to Eurocode 8: Part I: spectral shapes and regional empirical equations for scaling pseudo-acceleration spectra

Eurocode 8 allows that any country can use its own shape of the elastic response spectrum after it defines it in the National Annex. Having in mind that such country-specific spectra are to be derived through analysis of the strong motion data recorded in the considered seismo-tectonic region, in this Paper we discuss the existing and a set of new empirical equations for scaling pseudo-acceleration spectra in Serbia and the whole region of north-western Balkans. We then compare the presented spectra to those proposed by Eurocode 8. Results show that the indiscriminate use of the strong motion data from different seismo-tectonic regions, improper classification of the local soil conditions, and neglect of the effects of deep geology, may all lead to unreliable scaling equations and to extremely biased ground motion estimates. Moreover, only two spectral shapes that are defined for wide magnitude ranges and scaled by a single PGA value, are not able to adequately represent all important features of real strong ground motion, and instead of using such normalized spectra one should rather employ the direct scaling of spectral amplitudes that is based on the analysis of regionally gathered and processed strong motion data. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 36043]