NUST institute of Civil Engineering (NICE)

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE)

National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)

UG CE 2017 Code/Course: CE-416

Semester: Spring 2020 Course Title: Earthquake Engineering (Elective)

Assignment 3: Response of SDF systems to harmonic forces

Question 1:

Consider a simple structure which is idealized as a single-degree-of-freedom (SDF) system as shown in

Figure 1. The mass 𝑚 of the structure is 4000 𝑘𝑔 which is supported by massless columns with
combined stiffness 𝑘 = 16 × 105 𝑁/𝑚. The structure is modelled with an energy dissipation mechanism
in the form of viscous damping. Suppose that the critical damping ratio (𝜉 ) of this structure is 0.05.

Figure 2: An undamped SDF system

Task 1: Determine the natural cyclic frequency “𝑓 ”, natural circular frequency “𝜔”, and natural time period
“𝑇” of the system using analytical expressions derived in class.

Task 2: Determine the complete vibration response (𝑢(𝑡) = 𝑢ℎ (𝑡) + 𝑢𝑝 (𝑡)) of the system under the
harmonic force using the analytical expressions derived in class. Subject the model to a harmonic force
̅𝑡 where 𝑝𝑜 = 1000 𝑁 and 𝜔
defined as 𝑝(𝑡) = 𝑝𝑜 sin 𝜔 ̅ = 2𝜋𝑓 ̅ (see Figure below). Plot the response for
at least 10 cycles of structure in each case and find maximum displacement, base shear and base
moment.

Consider the following cases.

a) 𝑓̅ = 0.25 𝑓
b) 𝑓̅ = 0.5 𝑓
c) 𝑓̅ = 0.9 𝑓
d) 𝑓̅ = 𝑓
e) 𝑓̅ = 1.1 𝑓
f) 𝑓̅ = 2 𝑓
g) 𝑓̅ = 3𝑓
h) 𝑓̅ = 5𝑓
Where 𝑓 is the natural cyclic frequency of the SDF system. Use at-rest initial conditions (i.e. 𝑢(0) = 0,
𝑢̇ (0) = 0). Plot the displacement-vs-time response for at least 10 cycles of structure in each case and
find maximum displacement, base shear and base moment.for each case.

Maximum Force,

Harmonic Force,

Time,

Figure 2: The harmonic force

Task 3: Plot the frequency-response curve for the given structure.

Note: The frequency-response curve is a plot of the maximum amplitude of a response quantity (i.e.
displacement in this question) against the excitation frequency.

Task 4: Repeat the whole problem for 𝜉 = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.075 and 0.1. Plot a comparison of frequency-
response curves for the case of Task 3 (𝜉 = 0.05) and Task 4 with different damping ratios.

Note: The frequency-response curve is a plot of the maximum amplitude of a response quantity (i.e.
displacement in this question) against the excitation frequency.