A First Cou

urse on Structu
ural Dynamics and
a Earthquake Engineering

2.10. Earthqu
E ake Response of
o SDF Sy
ystems
The ground acceleration is defined d by numericcal values at discrete time
e instants. Thhese time insstants
should bee closely spaced to describe accurately the highly irregular variation of acce eleration with time.
Typically, the time interval is chosen to be 1/100
0 to 1/50 of a second, requ
uiring 1500 to
o 3000 ordinaates to
t ground motion.
describe the

The gove
erning equatio
on of motion of an SDF system
s having
g a natural frrequency a
and subjected
d to a
ground motion caan be written as follows.

It is clear that for a given , the deformation response of the syste

em depends only on the n natural
frequency y or naturaal period off the system and its dam ping ratio ; writing forma ally, ≡ , , .
Thus any two systems s having the same
s values of
o and wiill have the sa ame deforma ation response e
even thou ugh one syste em may be mo ore massive than
t the othe r or one may be stiffer than the other.

Once the deformation response histtory has been evalua ated by dynam mic analysis o
of the structurre, the
internal fo
orces can be determined byb static analyysis of the strructure at eacch time instan
nt. Two metho ods to
implemen nt such analyysis were mentioned in Chapter 1. Between the em, the prefeerred approa ach in
earthquak ke engineering is based onn the conceptt of the equiva alent static fo
orce becausse it can be re elated
to earthquuake forces specified in bu
uilding codes.

Where is the lateral stiffness

s of the frame. Exprressing in te
erms of the m
mass gives

Where ent static forcce is m timess

. Observe that the equivale , the psseudo-accelerration,
not time
es the total ac
cceleration .

For the one-story fram

me the interna al forces (e.g.., the shears and momentts in the columns and bea am, or
stress at any location) can be determined at a selected
s insta
ant of time byy static analyssis of the stru
ucture
subjected to the equivaalent static la
ateral force at the samme time instant. Thus a sta atic analysis of the
structure would
w be neccessary at eac ch time instan
nt when the re esponses are e desired. In pparticular, the
e base
shear and the base overturnin ng moment are

Where is the height of

o the mass above
a the bas
se. The above
e expressionss can also be written as

Dynamics of Single-Degree-of-Freedom
m (SDF) System
ms 131
A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

2.10.1. The Concept of Response Spectrum

A plot of the peak value of a response quantity as a function of the natural vibration period of the
system, or a related parameter such as circular frequency or cyclic frequency , is called the response
spectrum for that quantity. Each such plot is for SDF systems having a fixed damping ratio , and several
such plots for different values of are included to cover the range of damping values encountered in
actual structures. Whether the peak response is plotted against or is a matter of personal preference.

A variety of response spectra can be defined depending on the response quantity that is plotted. Consider
the following peak responses:

, | , , |

, | , , |

, | , , |

The deformation response spectrum is a plot of against for fixed . A similar plot for is the relative
velocity response spectrum, and for is the acceleration response spectrum.

(a) Ground acceleration; (b) deformation response of three SDF systems with = 2% and T = 0.5, 1, and
2 sec; (c) deformation response spectrum for = 2%.

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A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

Pseudo-velocity response spectrum

Consider a quantity V for an SDF system with natural frequency ω related to its peak deformation ≡
due to earthquake ground motion:
2

The quantity V has units of velocity. It is related to the peak value of strain energy stored in the
system during the earthquake by the equation

2
This relationship can be derived from the definition of strain energy and using the definition of as
follows:

2 2 2 2
The right side of above equation is the kinetic energy of the structural mass m with velocity , called the
peak pseudo-velocity. The prefix pseudo is used because V is not equal to the peak relative velocity ,
although it has the correct units.

The pseudo-velocity response spectrum is a plot of as a function of the natural vibration period , or
natural vibration frequency , of the system. For any ground motion, the peak pseudo-velocity for a
system with natural period can be determined from above equation and the peak deformation of the
same system available from the response spectrum.

Pseudo-acceleration response spectrum

Consider a quantity for an SDF system with natural frequency related to its peak deformation ≡
due to earthquake ground motion:

The quantity has units of acceleration and is related to the peak value of base shear or the peak
value of the equivalent static force .

The peak base shear can be written in the form

where is the weight of the structure and the gravitational acceleration. When written in this form, /
may be interpreted as the base shear coefficient or lateral force coefficient. It is used in building codes to
represent the coefficient by which the structural weight is multiplied to obtain the base shear. Observe
that the base shear is equal to the inertia force associated with the mass undergoing acceleration .
This quantity is generally different from the peak acceleration to of the system. It is for this reason

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A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

that we call the peak pseudo-acceleration; the prefix pseudo is used to avoid possible confusion with
the true peak acceleration .

The pseudo-acceleration response spectrum is a plot of as a function of the natural vibration period ,
or natural vibration frequency , of the system. For any ground motion, the peak pseudo-acceleration
for a system with natural period and damping ratio can be determined from above equation and the
peak deformation of the system from the spectrum.

Response spectra ( 0.02) for El Centro ground motion: (a) deformation response spectrum; (b)
pseudo-velocity response spectrum; (c) pseudo-acceleration response spectrum.

Combined D-V-A response spectrum

Each of the deformation, pseudo-velocity, and pseudo-acceleration response spectra for a given ground
motion contains the same information, no more and no less. The three spectra are simply different ways
of presenting the same information on structural response.

Knowing one of the spectra, the other two can be obtained by algebraic operations mentioned above.

Why do we need three spectra when each of them contains the same information? One of the reasons is
that each spectrum directly provides a physically meaningful quantity. The deformation spectrum provides
the peak deformation of a system. The pseudo-velocity spectrum is related directly to the peak strain
energy stored in the system during the earthquake. The pseudo-acceleration spectrum is related directly
to the peak value of the equivalent static force and base shear. The second reason lies in the fact that the
shape of the spectrum can be approximated more readily for design purposes with the aid of all three

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A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

spectral quantities rather than any one of them alone. For this purpose a combined plot showing all three
of the spectral quantities is especially useful. This type of plot was developed for earthquake response
spectra, apparently for the first time, by A. S. Veletsos and N. M. Newmark in 1960.

Combined D–V –A response spectrum for El Centro ground motion; = 2%.

Combined D–V –A response spectrum for El Centro ground motion; = 0, 2, 5, 10, and 20%.

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A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

Construction of Response Spectrum

The response spectrum for a given ground motion component can be developed by implementation
of the following steps:

1. Numerically define the ground acceleration ; typically, the ground motion ordinates are defined
every 0.02 sec.

2. Select the natural vibration period and damping ratio of an SDF system.

3. Compute the deformation response of this SDF system due to the ground motion by any of
the numerical methods.

4. Determine , the peak value of .

5. The spectral ordinates are , 2 / , and 2 / .

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for a range of and values covering all possible systems of engineering interest.

7. Present the results of steps 2 to 6 graphically to produce three separate spectra or a combined
spectrum.

Example

A 12-ft-long vertical cantilever, a 4-in.-nominal-diameter standard steel pipe, supports a 5200-lb weight
attached at the tip as shown in Figure below. The properties of the pipe are: outside diameter,
4.5 ., inside diameter 4.026 ., thickness 0.237 ., and second moment of cross-sectional
area, 7.23 , elastic modulus 29,000 , and weight 10.79 / . Determine the
peak deformation and bending stress in the cantilever due to the El Centro ground motion. Assume that
2%.

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A First Course on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

Dynamics of Single-Degree-of-Freedom (SDF) Systems 137