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Currently, earthquake-resistant design of buildings based on the power calculation and presentation of effect of the earthquake static equivalent forces, which are calculated using elastic response spectra (linear-spectral method) that connects the law of motion of the soil with the absolute acceleration of the model in a nonlinear oscillator.

This approach does not directly take into account either the influence of the duration of strong motion or the plastic behavior of the structure. Frequency content and duration of ground vibrations directly affect the energy received by the building and causing damage to its elements. Unlike power or kinematic calculation of the seismic effect on the structure can be interpreted without considering separately the forces and displacements and to provide, as the product of both variables, i.e., the work or input energy (maximum energy that can be purchased building to the earthquake).

With the energy approach of seismic design, it is necessary to evaluate the input seismic energy in the structure and its distribution among various structural components.

The article provides substantiation of the energy approach in the design of earthquake-resistant buildings and structures instead of the currently used method based on the power calculation and presentation of effect of the earthquake static equivalent forces, which are calculated using spectra of the reaction.

Noted that interest in the use of energy concepts in earthquake-resistant design began with the works of Housner, which provided the seismic force in the form of the input seismic energy, using the range of speeds, and suggested that the damage in elastic-plastic system and elastic system causes one and the same input seismic energy.

The indices of the determination of the input energy of the earthquake, proposed by various authors, are given in this paper. It is shown that modern approaches to ensuring seismic stability of structures, based on the representation of the earthquake effect as a static equivalent force, do not adequately describe the behavior of the system during an earthquake.

In this paper, based on quantitative estimates of seismic risk analyzes developed in the NRU MSUCE Standard Organization (STO) “Seismic resistance structures. The main design provisions”. In the developed document a step forward with respect to the optimal design of earthquake-resistant structures.

The proposed concept of using the achievements of modern methods of calculation of buildings and structures on seismic effects, which are harmonized with the Eurocodes and are not contrary to the system of national regulations.

One of the destroying natural processes is the initiation of the regional seismic activity. It leads to a large number of human deaths. Much effort has been made to develop precise and robust methods for the estimation of the seismic stability of buildings. One of the most common approaches is the natural frequency method. The obvious drawback of this approach is a low precision due to the model oversimplification. The other method is a detailed simulation of dynamic processes using the finite-element method. Unfortunately, the quality of simulations is not enough due to the difficulty of setting the correct free boundary condition. That is why the development of new numerical methods for seismic stability problems is a high priority nowadays.

The present work is devoted to the study of spatial dynamic processes occurring in geological medium during an earthquake. We describe a method for simulating seismic wave propagation from the hypocenter to the day surface. To describe physical processes, we use a system of partial differential equations for a linearly elastic body of the second order, which is solved numerically by a grid-characteristic method on parallelepiped meshes. The widely used geological hypocenter model, called the “double-couple” model, was incorporated into this numerical algorithm. In this case, any heterogeneities, such as geological layers with curvilinear boundaries, gas and fluid-filled cracks, fault planes, etc., may be explicitly taken into account.

In this paper, seismic waves emitted during the earthquake initiation process are numerically simulated. Two different models are used: the homogeneous half-space and the multilayered geological massif with the day surface. All of their parameters are set based on previously published scientific articles. The adequate coincidence of the simulation results is obtained. And discrepancies may be explained by differences in numerical methods used. The numerical approach described can be extended to more complex physical models of geological media.