International Symposium on Strong Vrancea Earthquakes and Risk Mitigation

Oct. 4-6, 2007, Bucharest, Romania

APPLICATION OF THE CAPACITY SPECTRUM METHOD FOR SEISMIC

EVALUATION OF STRUCTURES
Sascha Schnepf1, Lothar Stempniewski2, Dan Lungu3
ABSTRACT
One of the most widespread procedures for the assessment of building behaviour, due to
earthquake, is the Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM). In the scope of this procedure the
capacity curve, which describe the ability of a building to resist an earthquake, will be superimposed with a response spectra, which represent the demand of an earthquake. Considering the ductility of the building an intersection point can be determined and the response of
the building in terms of spectral displacement can be evaluated. In combination with fragility
curves a prediction about the damages on a building can be done.
According to the numerical modelling of the buildings, macro-elements were developed, by
which the global structural behaviour of reinforced concrete frames with and without masonry infill can be pictured. Macro-elements consist of simple elements like for example
nonlinear springs. The advantage of these elements is to make a damage analysis of several buildings in an appropriate time and modelling effort. In the present paper the columns
and beams are represented by a one-component model consisting of a linear elastic beam
element with two nonlinear springs at the member ends. The representation of the infill
based on the equivalent strut concept, so that the structural behaviour of the infill can be
pictured by a diagonal nonlinear spring. Several hysteretic rules were developed, by which
the cyclic nonlinear behaviour of both, the one-component model and the equivalent diagonal spring, can be described. A verification of the macro-elements by comparison of numerical results with experimental results cyclic tested infilled frames confirms the validity of these
elements
THE CAPACITY SPECTRUM METHOD (CSM)
The capacity spectrum method (CSM) is a nonlinear static analysis method, which compares
the global force-displacement capacity curve of a structure with a earthquake response
spectrum in a graphical shape (Freeman, 1998), (Badoux, 1998). For this, both the capacity
curve and the response spectra have to convert into a spectral acceleration Sa spectral displacement Sd graph. Due to this transformation, the global building will be reduced to an
equivalent SDF-structure. By using a trial and error procedure one can estimate the performance point, which describe the spectral displacement of the building due to the given
earthquake.
MACRO-ELEMENTS FOR MASONRY INFILL
In order to describe the complex nonlinear behaviour of masonry infill the equivalent strut
method, which was originally proposed form Polyakov (Polyakov, 1966) and afterwards advanced of many researchers (Mainstone, 1971), (Stafford Smith and Carter, 1969) was applied. With this method the masonry infill will be replaced by a diagonal spring. To describe
the nonlinear behaviour of the masonry infill the value of the maximum compression force fc
1

Institut fr Massivbau und Baustofftechnologie, Uni Kalrlsruhe (TH); sasch.aschnepf@ifmb.uka.de

Institut fr Massivbau und Baustofftechnologie, Uni Kalrlsruhe (TH); lothar.stempniewski@ifmb.uka.de
3
Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, UTCB; lungud@utcb.ro.
2

International Symposium on Strong Vrancea Earthquakes and Risk Mitigation

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of the diagonal spring is necessary. The evaluation of the compression force fc based on the
failure criteria of Mann and Mller (Mann and Mller, 1985), which were slightly modified by
Crisafulli (Crisafulli, 1997). He replaced the stair distributed load over the length of a stone,
assumed by Mann and Mller, by a linear distribution. Additionally only shear failure in the
mortar joint and cracking failure of the stones are considered. In order to express the criteria
in terms of the angle , the vertical compression force fc was formulated as a function of the
compression principal stress. With theses assumptions the diagonal compression force of
the diagonal strut can be calculated with the following equations, by which fc,S represents the
compression force in the case of a shear failure an fc,C, represents the compression force in
the case of cracking failure.
fc ,S =

k*

sin cos sin

fc ,C =

z,st

(1)

sin2
2,0 sin cos
4

To describe the cyclic behaviour of the masonry both the unloading curve and the reloading
curve were formulated. Because of the similar shape of both curves a general expression
was used (Eqs. 2, 3).

= a + ( b a )
=

+ 2
1 + ( ( 2 (1 + ) ) ) + ( 2 (1 + ) ) 2

(2)

a
E
E
;= a; = b
b a
Eb
Es

(3)

Therefore the starting point, the target point, the stiffness at both points and the secant
modulus is necessary. In Fig. 2 one can see, that the starting point of the unloading curve is
equal to the end point of the loading or reloading point. The target point is defined by the
plastic strain pl, which is the intersection of the abscissa with a line connected by the starting point and an artificial point A. For calculating the artificial point a method of Crisafulli
(Crisafulli, 1997) was applied, who has enhanced the original method proposed by Mander
(Mander, 1988). The plastic strain is also the starting point for reloading. Because of the
double curverture of the reloading curve, the general expression must be used twice. Firstly
from (pl=0, pl) till to the changing point (we, we) and secondly from the changing point till to
the target point (end, end). The complete hysteretic curve for the equivalent strut and all
equations, which are necessary are summarized in Fig. 2.

k = k fc ; k = k ent

pl = un

k fc
un
Em 0

ent k

1

1 + ent
0,6
c
c ; k
; k =
+ 0,05
c

ent
0,09
c

ent

fc

we = we end ; we = d +
d = pl

we
Ewe

; 0,5 we =

u2

0,9
c ent

+ d ent ent pl ; end = ent + end ent pl

E
ent

Eent = ent Em 0 ; E pl = pl

Em 0
e

ent

c

; Ewe =

ent
; Ewi = 1.2 E pl
ent d

Figure 2: Unloading- and reloading curve with all necessary equations

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S. Schnepf et al.

MACRO-ELEMENTS FOR R/C COLUMNS AND R/C BEAMS

In order to describe the nonlinear behaviour of the R/C frame members a beam-element was
modelled. Therefore, the principle of the one-component-model was used, which consists of
a central elastic beam and two nonlinear rotational springs at both ends (Giberson, 1967),
(Banon, 1981), (Fillipou, 1988), (Filippou, 1992). For this reason, the complete nonlinear
deformations are concentrated at the end of the beam-element. Additional, two joint elements are included, by which the additional rotation due to the slippage of the reinforcing
steel can be considered. The cooperation of all three elements is shown in the Fig. 3. The
flexibility coefficients ffi, fpi and sfi, spi are necessary to describe the nonlinear behaviour of
the rotational spring and joint element, respectively.
The behaviour of the complete beam-element at first loading will be described by a three
linear moment-rotation-relationship (Fig. 3d) whose evaluation depends on the momentcurvature-relationship of the given structure. In order to calculate the moment-curvaturerelationship an antisymmetrical moment distribution over the length of the beam was assumed. With this assumption, one can replace the beam by a cantilever beam with a vertical
force P at the free end. After determining of the moment-curvature points at first cracking,
yielding of the steel and at collapse the moment-rotation-relationship can be calculated by
integration of the curvature over the beam length (Fig. 4a).

Figure 3: Cooperation of all three sub-elements to the beam-element

In order to describe the hysteretic behaviour of the beam-element the Takeda (Takeda et al.,
1970) rules was used and modified (Fig. 4b). If unloading take place before the cracking
point is reached, no plastic strains are happened yet. After the cracking point is exceeded
and the yielding point is not yet reached, the unloading will trend toward to the cracking point
(Mcr, cr) at the opposite quadrant. After the yielding point is exceeded the unloading curve is
described by kent. Reloading ever run to the maximum reached point at unloading in the opposite quadrant. After this point is reached, the behaviour of the beam-element will be described by the envelope curve. Fig. 4b shows the hysteretic rules for the beam-element.
To verify the macro-element several test have been done with one-bay one-storey R/C
frames with and without masonry infill. The structure is loaded cyclical by a horizontal force
at the beam. In Fig. 5 both the experimental and the numerical results are superimposed into
one diagram. The loading stiffness at the beginning of the test as well as the unloading stiffness and the maximum strength shows a good agreement. Small differences can be seen
with the plastic strain, which depends on the assumptions for the unloading curve of the
macro-elements.
In order to show the suitability of the macro-elements a seven-story, four-bay structure was
modelled and a push-over analysis has been done. After that, the push-over curve was

International Symposium on Strong Vrancea Earthquakes and Risk Mitigation

381

transformed into the capacity curve and superimposed with the response spectra of the
Vrancea earthquake 1977. Finally, the probability of a given damage state was evaluated by
using fragility curves (Fig. 6). This procedure yields a result, by which the building will suffer
a collapse with a probability of 22%, a strong damage with a probability of 39%, a moderate
damage with a probability of 31% and so on.

Figure 4: Moment- and curvature distribution over the length of the structural element a) and
hysteretic rules of the beam-element b)

Figure 5: Test setup (left) and superposition of experimental and numerical results (right)

Figure 6: Performance of the CSM and damage evaluation of a seven-story, four-bay structure

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S. Schnepf et al.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research project was developed within the scope of the Collaborative Research Center
(CRC) 461 'Strong Earthquakes: A Challenge for Geosciences and Civil Engineering', which
is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (German Research Foundation).

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