The result of the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) project has now been released in several publications, utilizing a new set of empirical ground-motion models for PGA, PGV, and response spectral ordinates. These models, which provide significant advancement in the state-of-the-art in empirical ground-motion modeling, account for many effects that have not been considered in the development of the existing ground-motion attenuation relations for the Iranian Plateau. Assuming that the present strong-motion database in Iran is unlikely to change drastically in the near future, we investigate the applicability of the NGA models to the strong ground motion in Iran. We use the NGA models of Boore and Atkinson (2007), Campbell and Bozorgnia (2007), and Chiou and Youngs (2007). The database used in this study comprises of 863 two-component horizontal acceleration time series recorded within 100 km of epicentral distances for 166 earthquakes with magnitudes BETWEEN 4.0 and 7.4 occurred between 1973 and 2006. The comparisons are made using analyses of modal residuals. The results indicate that the three NGA models we used in this study are generally applicable to the strong motion dataset of Iran within the acceptable level of errors. In future with larger collection of strong motion data and more detailed information on site conditions and faulting processes of the earthquakes, an independent model similar to the NGA equations can be developed for Iran. It would also be beneficial to merge the NGA and Iranian databases.

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