Damping modification factors for eastern Canada.

This paper investigates damping modification factors in eastern Canada based on historical and simulated records compatible with seismic hazard in this region. Damping modification factors are characterized as a function of magnitude, distance, site condition, and damping ratio. Damping modification factors corresponding to historical and simulated ground motions on rock sites are shown to exhibit the same trends for all damping levels. In addition to period dependency of damping modification factors, we demonstrate their sensitivity to magnitude variations at longer periods. The effect of distance is shown to be less pronounced. It is also observed that soil conditions affect damping modification factors at short as well as longer periods. Period-dependent equations are proposed for practical assessment of damping modification factors corresponding to damping ratios between 1 and 40 %, considering different magnitude-distance combinations and soil conditions representative of seismic hazard in eastern Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]