ShakerMaker: A framework that simplifies the simulation of seismic ground-motions

Abstract

ShakerMaker is an open-source python framework which simplifies the generation of synthetic broad-band seismograms, produced by finite-fault kinematic representations of earthquake ruptures, using a 1-D layered model of the crust and the frequency–wavenumber (–) method. It is designed to bring closer the engineering seismology and earthquake engineering communities, by catering to the earthquake simulation needs of both disciplines. One particular goal of this framework is to provide a simple way to produce high-fidelity earthquake motions for use with the domain-reduction method, simplifying the setup of physically accurate finite-element simulations of multi-scale seismological and earthquake engineering problems through the use of a new specialized file format.ShakerMaker’s core is composed of a high-performance Fortran implementation of the – method, that is exposed to the user as a python framework. Its software architecture emphasizes simplicity, extensibility, and performance, allowing users to specify complex simulation scenarios with short scripts. The message passing interface is used to achieve scalability from simple single-processor machines to HPC clusters.