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The safety of building structures and contents, as well as the comfort of occupants, under such strong forces as earthquakes and typhoons remain major engineering concerns. In order to improve our understanding of building structural responses, records of a structural array in the 30-story PS Building in Taipei from the M7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake and Typhoon Aere are analyzed. In addition, wind data measured at the Taipei Meteorological Station are also used. First, the field measurement data clearly demonstrate that serviceability of the PS Building met the criteria for occupant comfort during Typhoon Aere. Secondly, several structural vibration parameters of this highrise building, including the transfer functions, natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes, excited by the Chi-Chi earthquake, Typhoon Aere, and ambient vibrations are also determined and compared. The results show the frequency of the first mode for the longitudinal components is approximately 8.6% lower for the earthquake than the ambient vibrations. The transverse mode frequencies behave similarly. In contrast, frequency changes from the typhoon to ambient vibrations are in the third decimal (1.3% and 0.9% lower in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively), indicating little nonlinearity. The damping ratios of the PS Building apparently increase with vibration amplitudes. Finally, results of a spectral ratio analysis of the Chi-Chi earthquake data do not indicate significant SSI effects in the longitudinal and transverse directions.

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The purpose of this study is to estimate maximum ground motions in southern Taiwan as well as to assess potential human fatalities from scenario earthquakes on the Chishan active faults in this area. The resultant Shake Map patterns of maximum ground motion in a case of M w 7.2 show the areas of PGA above 400 gals are located in the northeastern, central and northern parts of southwestern Kaohsiung as well as the southern part of central Tainan, as shown in the regions inside the yellow lines in the corresponding figure. Comparing cities with similar distances located in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung to the Chishan fault, the cities in Tainan area have relatively greater PGA and PGV, due to large site response factors in Tainan area. Furthermore, seismic hazards in terms of PGA and PGV in the vicinity of the Chishan fault are not completely dominated by the Chishan fault. The main reason is that some areas located in the vicinity of the Chishan fault are marked with low site response amplification values from 0.55 -1.1 and 0.67 -1.22 for PGA and PGV, respectively. Finally, from estimation of potential human fatalities from scenario earthquakes on the Chishan active fault, it is noted that potential fatalities increase rapidly in people above age 45. Total fatalities reach a high peak in age groups of 55 -64. Another to pay special attention is Kaohsiung City has more than 540 thousand households whose residences over 50 years old. In light of the results of this study, I urge both the municipal and central governments to take effective seismic hazard mitigation measures in the highly urbanized areas with a large number of old buildings in southern Taiwan. Article history:Received 19 August 2016 Revised 6 January 2017 Accepted 6 January 2017 Keywords:Chishan Fault, Potential Human Fatality, Ground Motion, Shake Map, Southern Taiwan Citation:Liu, K.-S., 2017: Estimation of seismic ground motions and attendant potential human fatalities from scenario earthquakes on the Chishan fault in southern Taiwan. Terr.