1.4.12. 2005 Scaling of Spectral Displacement Ordinates With Damping Ratios

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS
Earthquake Engng Struct. Dyn. 2005; 34:145–165

Published online 25 October 2004 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/eqe.414
Scaling of spectral displacement ordinates with damping ratios
Julian J. Bommer∗; † and Rishmila Mendis

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Imperial College London; London SW7 2AZ; U.K.
SUMMARY
The next generation of seismic design codes, especially those adopting the framework of performance-
based design, will include the option of design based on displacements rather than forces. For direct
displacement-based design using the substitute structure approach, the spectral ordinates of displacement
need to be specied for a wide range of response periods and for several levels of damping. The code
displacement spectra for damping values higher than the nominal value of 5% of critical will generally
be obtained, as is the case in Eurocode 8 and other design codes, by applying scaling factors to the
5% damped ordinates. These scaling factors are dened as functions of the damping ratio and, in some
cases, the response period, but are independent of the nature of the expected ground shaking. Using
both predictive equations for spectral ordinates at several damping levels and stochastic simulations,
it is shown that the scaling factors for dierent damping levels vary with magnitude and distance,
reecting a dependence of the scaling on the duration of shaking that increases with the damping ratio.
The options for incorporating the inuence of this factor into design code specications of displacement
response spectra are discussed. Copyright ? 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: displacement response spectra; displacement-based design; damping ratios; seismic design
codes
1. INTRODUCTION
Recognition of the poor correlation between transient inertial forces induced by earthquake
shaking and damage to structures has led to the development of displacement-based approaches
for seismic design and assessment. Amongst the dierent methods that have been proposed
for estimating inelastic displacements in structures, many are based on the response of an
equivalent elastic system (see review by Miranda and Ruiz-Garca [1]). These methods are
based on equivalent linearization, using the substitute structure concept [2, 3] in which the
inelastic deformation is modelled by a reduced stiness and the hysteretic dissipation of
energy is modelled by an increased level of viscous damping.
The adoption of direct displacement-based design (DBD) approaches places the onus on en-
gineering seismologists to provide suitable input in terms of long-period spectral displacements
∗ Correspondence to: Julian J. Bommer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College
London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.
† E-mail: j.bommer@imperial.ac.uk
Received 6 July 2004

Revised 20 July 2004
Copyright ? 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 21 July 2004
146 J. J. BOMMER AND R. MENDIS
Figure 1. Displacement spectra dened in Eurocode 8.
for a range of damping ratios. Transformation of the acceleration spectra in current seismic
codes to displacement spectra will generally not produce reliable displacement ordinates at the
longer periods that become relevant to DBD [4, 5]. In order for the acceleration spectrum not
to result in spectral displacements that increase monotonically with increasing response period,
there must be a portion over which the acceleration decays in inverse proportion to the square
of the period. The 1990 French seismic code [6] was the rst to introduce such a decaying
branch in the acceleration spectrum for periods beyond 3:0 seconds. Eurocode 8 [7] includes
specications for displacement spectra in an informative annex, amongst the rst codes to
explicitly make provisions for displacement-based design of buildings. The EC8 displacement
spectrum (Figure 1) is designed to be compatible with the acceleration spectrum, following
the proposal of Bommer et al. [8], with the control periods TD , TE and TF based on the work
of Tolis and Faccioli [9].
Although the original motivation for this work is related to dening input for direct DBD,
the issue of over-damped spectral displacements at intermediate and long response periods is
also of clear relevance to the design of buildings and bridges incorporating base isolation or
supplementary damping devices.
There is currently a signicant level of disagreement regarding appropriate values for the
control periods of the displacement spectrum. In EC8, the Type 1 spectrum (applicable in
high seismicity areas) control period TD has a value of only 2 seconds; TE is set at 6 seconds
and the spectral ordinates are expected to converge to the peak ground displacement (PGD) at
a period (TF ) of 10 seconds. Guan et al. [10] propose displacement spectra based on Japanese
and Californian accelerograms recorded between 1989 and 2001; the control periods in their
proposal are very similar to those for the EC8 Type 1 spectrum. Other proposals assign much
larger values to the control periods: as Faccioli et al. [5] report, the procedure of Newmark and
Hall [11] yields values of 10 and 30 seconds for TE and TF respectively. The 2003 proposed
revision of the NEHRP guidelines [12] also includes a constant displacement branch in the
denition of the response spectrum; maps are provided that show the variation of the period
TL , equivalent to the period TD in the EC8 formulation (Figure 1). Values of this control
period specied for the contiguous United States vary between 4 and 16 seconds, increasing
Copyright ? 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Earthquake Engng Struct. Dyn. 2005; 34:145–165
SPECTRAL DISPLACEMENT ORDINATES 147
exponentially with earthquake magnitude; values of 12 seconds correspond to regions aected

by earthquakes in the New Madrid zone and on the major Californian faults, and values as
high as 16 seconds for areas aected by earthquakes on the Cascadia subduction zone. There
is clearly much work yet to be done to obtain reliable estimates of the long-period spectral
displacements.
In seismic design codes such as EC8, the displacement spectra for damping ratios other
than 5% are obtained by applying scaling factors to the ordinates of the 5% damped spectrum.
The scaling factors are dened as a function of the response period and the damping ratio
only. Several dierent proposals for these scaling factors, reviewed briey in the next section
of this paper, have been put forward, prompting discussion as to which factors are the most
appropriate for use in code applications. The approach adopted in this paper is to explore the
variation amongst the proposed scaling factors by investigating if there are any systematic
variations in the scaling factors that would suggest that their denition in terms of response
period and damping ratio alone is insucient.
2. SPECTRAL REDUCTION FACTORS
Figure 2 compares the spectral ratios, in this case normalized to the 10% damped spectral
ordinates, from the studies of Newmark and Hall [11] and Wu and Hanson [13], which for
the 20% damped spectral ordinates are in good agreement. The ratios from both studies tend
towards unity at very short and very long periods, as would be expected. Both studies were
based on pseudo-velocity spectra and hence are applicable to displacement spectra. Lin and
Chang [14] found that whilst the ratios obtained from spectra of relative displacement show
relatively little variation with response period (and hence the same is true for pseudo-velocity
and pseudo-acceleration spectra), the ratios obtained from spectra of relative velocity and
absolute acceleration display a much more pronounced variation with period. Lin and Chang
[14] also point out that the spectral ratios for dierent damping values have generally been
determined from studies of displacement spectra and then applied to acceleration spectra for
the calculation of seismic design forces. This criticism is not relevant to the present study
Figure 2. Spectral ratios, with respect to the 10% damped ordinates, from two studies; the ratios for
the Newmark and Hall [11] study are obtained using median values.
since we are expressly concerned with the scaling of intermediate- and long-period ordinates
of spectral displacement, SD.
In EC8, the 5% damped spectral ordinates can be scaled for higher damping values, (%),
using a simple expression derived by Bommer et al. [8]:

SD() 10
= (1)
SD(5%) 5+
The scaling factor applies to the ordinates at all response periods between TB (the start
of the acceleration plateau) and TE (Figure 1); at shorter and longer periods the factor
increases linearly to reach a value of 1.0 at T = 0 and T = TF . Figure 3(a) compares the
resulting spectral ratios, normalized to the 5% damped spectral displacements, from Equation
(1) with values obtained by Lin and Chang [14] from their study of the median spectra from
more than 1000 strong-motion accelerograms. Although there is considerable divergence be-
tween the two sets of curves at long periods, this reects as much as anything the uncertainty
associated with obtaining long-period spectral displacements and the sensitivity of the long-
period spectral shape to record processing. Certainly over the period range that corresponds
to the constant displacement plateau in the EC8 spectrum between 2 and 6 seconds, there is
reasonable agreement with the results of Lin and Chang [14].
Equation (1) replaced a similar expression included in the original draft of EC8 [15], the
origin and derivation of which have not been documented:

SD() 7
= (2)
SD(5%) 2+
Figure 3(b) compares the ratios from Equation (2) with the values obtained by Lin and
Chang [14] using the 84-percentile spectral ordinates. For periods up to 6 seconds, the agree-
ment is excellent, which may be fortuitous but might also give a clue as to the derivation of
Equation (2). We believe that the scaling factors adopted in seismic codes for adjusting the
5% damped spectrum to other damping ratios should be based on median estimates, since the
Figure 3. Spectral ratios, with respect to the 5% damped ordinates: (a) Equation (1) compared with the
values of Lin and Chang [14] based on median ordinates; and (b) Equation (2) compared with the values
of Lin and Chang [14] based on 84-percentile ordinates. In both plots, the ratios for the EC8 spectra
have been obtained using the control periods for the Type 1 spectrum and site class C.
inherent variability in the ground-motion predictions is already accounted for in the proba-
bilistic derivation of the 5% damped spectrum. As can be appreciated from Figure 3, using the
ratios based on 84-percentile values will produce lower spectral ordinates for higher damping
values and it is not clear to us how such a choice could be rationalized for safe design.
A third variation of the scaling factor was proposed by Tolis and Faccioli [9], whose study
was based primarily on the recordings of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake:

SD() 15
= (3)
SD(5%) 10 +
In a few other seismic design codes, alternative scaling factors are encountered, although
it would appear that most code drafting committees have not envisaged the use of damping
ratios other than the nominal value of 5% assumed for reinforced concrete. The 1990 French
code [6] and the 1994 Spanish code [16] both included the following scaling factor for spectral
accelerations, SA:
0:4
SA() 5
= (4)
SA(5%)
The 1983 Portuguese seismic code [6] and the 1984 Indian seismic code [6] both include
graphical representations of acceleration spectra at more than one damping level, but do not
provide scaling factors. Figure 4 compares the ratios obtained from these graphs, averaged
over the period range covered (in both cases the variation with period is small), and the ratios
obtained from Equations (1)–(4).
The 2001 Caltrans Seismic Design Criteria [17] allow damping to be increased from
5% to 10% if the bridge is heavily inuenced by energy dissipation at the abutments and is
expected to respond like a single-degree-of-freedom system. The spectral displacements can
then be scaled using the following equation, originally derived by Kawashima and Aizawa
[18] for spectral ordinates of absolute acceleration:

SD() 1:5
= + 0:5 (5)
SD(5%) 0:4 + 1
Figure 4. Spectral reduction factors for dierent damping values from a number of seismic design codes
and from the study of Tolis and Faccioli [9].
The 1997 edition of the Uniform Building Code (UBC) [19] provides scaling factors at
a number of discrete damping values for the design of seismically isolated structures. These
factors, and those from Equation (5), are also shown in Figure 4.
The curves and individual values shown in Figure 4 reect a signicant disagreement
amongst models for the scaling of 5% damped spectral displacements for higher damping
values. Since the studies are presumably all based on the analysis of elastic single-degree-
of-freedom (SDOF) oscillators, one may assume that the dierences have not arisen from
variations in the structural models. The logical way to explore the possible cause of the
divergence is to investigate the extent to which the scaling factors are dependent on the
characteristics of the seismic demand.
3. FACTORS INFLUENCING SPECTRAL SCALING
In order to explore systematic inuences of characteristics of the earthquake ground motion

on the spectral scaling factors for dierent damping levels, there are two options: the rst
being to use real accelerograms; the second being to use synthetic accelerograms generated
from seismological models.
To identify consistent patterns within the appreciable variability that is always displayed
by strong-motion data, very large numbers of records would need to be employed since one
is unlikely to nd records that are essentially similar in all but one characteristic. For this
reason, we employ ground-motion prediction (attenuation) equations for spectral ordinates at
multiple levels of damping, derived from regression on empirical strong-motion data. The
analyses are based on the median values from these equations, for the reasons explained
previously, which eectively provides a direct way of identifying the average behaviour of
large numbers of strong-motion accelerograms. Four sets of predictive equations are adopted,
whose characteristics are summarized in Table I. The rst two equations are derived from
western North American data, the last two from European data, although Berge-Thierry et al.
[20] supplemented their data with Californian records to improve the near-source coverage of
large magnitude earthquakes.
As stated above, the second option is to use seismological models to generate synthetic
ground motions to explore the variation of the spectral scaling factors with dierent seismo-
logical parameters. We make use herein of the stochastic method of Boore [25] to validate
the results obtained from the predictive equations for the inuence of earthquake magnitude.
In the following three sub-sections, the inuence of magnitude, distance and site classica-
tion on the spectral scaling factors inferred from these equations are explored. In Section 3.4,
we briey address the special case of records aected by near-source rupture directivity.
3.1. Magnitude
Using the four predictive equations listed in Table I, median response spectra for dierent
damping levels were constructed for a rock site at 10 km from earthquakes of dierent mag-
nitude. For each magnitude, the spectral ordinates were then divided by the ordinates of the
5% damped spectrum and the ratios plotted (Figure 5). A consistent pattern was observed in
all cases: for periods greater than about 0:3 seconds—which are the periods of relevance to
direct DBD (based on equivalent linearization)—the reduction of the spectral displacements
Table I. Characteristics of ground-motion prediction equations used in this study.

No. of Magnitude Distance Response Damping
Equations records scale=range metric=range1 parameter2 values3
Trifunac and Lee [21] 438 (N.A) Rhyp

4
PSV 5, 10, 20%
(N.A.)
Boore et al. [22] 271 Mw RJB PSV 5, 10, 20%

(5.3 –7.7) (2 –100 km)
Bommer et al. [23] 183 Ms RJB SD 5, 10, 15,

(5.5 –7.9) (1– 260 km) 20, 25, 30%
Berge-Thierry et al. [20] 483 Ms Rhyp PSA 5, 7, 10,

(4.5 –7.3) (7–100 km) 20%
Notes: 1. Distance measures as dened by Abrahamson and Shedlock [24]; 2. PSV = pseudo-velocity response
spectrum, PSA = pseudo-acceleration response spectrum, SD = relative displacement response spectrum; 3. As
with some of the design codes reviewed previously, values of damping lower than 5% are not considered
in this study since they are unlikely to be relevant to displacement-based design; 4. Modied hypocentral
distance that accounts for source dimensions.
Figure 5. Variation of the ratios of 20% damped spectral ordinates to the 5% damped
ordinates with earthquake magnitude from the equations of (upper) Trifunac and Lee
[21] and (lower) Bommer et al. [23].
Figure 6. Variation of the spectral ratios (relative to the 5% damped ordinates) at

T = 2:0 s with earthquake magnitude inferred from median values obtained from the
four predictive equations in Table I.
for higher damping ratios increases with the earthquake magnitude. Figure 6 shows the vari-
ation of the scaling factors for a response period of 2:0 s—the longest period covered by the
equations of Boore et al. [22]—with magnitude for dierent damping ratios from all four
equations.
Stochastic simulations were also generated for the same scenario of a rock site at 10 km
from earthquakes of dierent magnitude, using the program SMSIM [26]. The same trend
of decreasing spectral ratios with increasing magnitude was observed, as shown in Figure 7.
The default source, path and site parameters for coastal California were employed for the
simulations.
The variation of the spectral ratios with magnitude shown in Figure 6 clearly varies from
one equation to another, and may in some cases appear to be not very pronounced; the
curvature in the plots corresponding to Boore et al. [22] is the result of the quadratic term in
magnitude in their equations. However, the ratio of 20% to 5% spectral ordinates are similar
for all four equations and it is reasonable to assume that the pronounced gradient of the curve
Figure 7. Variation of the spectral ratios (relative to the 5% damped ordinates) at T = 2:0 s with
earthquake magnitude inferred from stochastic simulations.
for 30% obtained from the equations of Bommer et al. [23] would also be observed for these
other equations had they provided coecients for this damping level.
In plotting the ratios for magnitudes up to 8 the equations are extended slightly beyond
their range of applicability. For the 30% damped spectrum, the scaling factors inferred from
the equations of Bommer et al. [23] decrease by 15% as the magnitude is increased from 6
to 7.5.
3.2. Source-to-site distance

The equations of Trifunac and Lee [21] include exactly the same attenuation terms for spectral
ordinates at all damping levels hence the variation of the spectral ratios with distance cannot
be inferred. The other three equations exhibit the same tendency at intermediate response
periods of the scaling factors decreasing as the distance from the earthquake source increases.
This is illustrated for two of the equations in Figure 8.
The spectral ratios appear to be most sensitive to changes of distance close to the earthquake
source and for the results obtained from both Boore et al. [22] and Bommer et al. [23], the
signicant variation of the ratios with distance is limited to the rst 10–15km from the source.
Since the strong-motion datasets are relatively sparse in terms of near-source recordings, the
inferred variation of the ratios at these distances should be interpreted with some caution.
The combined eect of varying magnitude and distance on the spectral scaling factor is
appreciable: using the equations of Bommer et al. [23] and considering the ratio of the 30%
spectral ordinate to the 5% damped ordinate at T = 2:0 s, the ratio decreases from 0.68 for a
magnitude Ms = 5:5 earthquake at 5 km to 0.51 for an event of Ms = 7:5 at 50 km: a reduction
of 25%.
3.3. Site classication

The four predictive equations include site classication as an explanatory variable, which
allows the inuence of this parameter on the spectral ratios to be investigated, as shown
in Figure 9.
The four equations do not use the same site classication scheme. Trifunac and Lee [21]
divide their data into ‘basement rock’, ‘alluvium’ and ‘intermediate’ sites, and spectral ratios
display very small decreases, at intermediate periods, as one passes from stier to softer site
geologies. Boore et al. [22] and Bommer et al. [23] use the same site classication scheme
Figure 8. Variation of the ratios of 20% damped spectral ordinates to the 5% damped ordinates with
source-to-site distance (measured from the surface projection of the fault rupture) from the equations
of Boore et al. [22] and Bommer et al. [23] for an earthquake of magnitude 7.
based on 30m shear wave velocities, with 360m=s and 760m=s marking the boundaries between
classes. The results from the equations of Bommer et al. [23] do not show a consistent pattern
but it is known that the classication of a large proportion of strong-motion stations in Europe
and the Middle East is highly uncertain. The same qualifying remark applies to the equations
of Berge-Thierry et al. [20]; their results indicate lower scaling factors at ‘rock’ sites than at
‘alluvium’ sites, but for response periods beyond 5 seconds (not shown in the plots in order
for them to be visually comparable) the curves are inverted. Amongst the four studies, the
only one for which most recording station site classications may be considered reliable is
Boore et al. [22] and hence greatest weight should perhaps be given to the pattern indicated
from their results: appreciably lower spectral scaling factors at soil sites than at rock sites.
The number of records from rock sites in their data set, however, was limited, so even here
some caution may be in order in drawing conclusions from the results.
There are some cases where site eects on strong motion have been very pronounced,
foremost amongst these being the recordings from Mexico City of the 1985 Michoacan earth-
quake. Figure 10 shows one of these records, its displacement response spectra for various
damping levels and the variation of the ratios of 30% to 5% spectral displacements with
response period. At the dominant period of this narrow-band signal, the reduction factors are
very small, whereas at other periods the scaling factors are exceptionally high.
Figure 9. Variation of the spectral ratios (20% to 5% damped ordinates) with site classication inferred
from median values obtained from the four predictive equations in Table I.
3.4. Near-source directivity eects

At sites close to the fault rupture, forward rupture directivity can create large-amplitude
velocity pulses that increase the response spectral ordinates. Near-source ground motions af-
fected by forward rupture directivity have been observed to be particularly damaging and their
characterization has become a major concern for earthquake engineering. Somerville et al. [27]
derived a model for the impact of forward directivity on the acceleration spectral ordinates,
leading to monotonically increasing ordinates for response periods beyond 0:6 seconds for
sites aected by forward directivity during earthquakes of Mw = 6:5 or larger. Abrahamson
[28] modied the model to include the inuence of distance and the decay of the amplifying
eect with separation from the fault rupture. The model has more recently been modied,
using recordings from larger earthquakes that have occurred in the last few years, to repre-
sent the forward-directivity eect as a narrow-band pulse whose central period increases with
earthquake magnitude [29]. Faccioli et al. [5] have incorporated the narrow-band pulse model
into their formulation for long-period spectral displacements.
Priestley [30] has proposed the following modication of the EC8 spectral scaling factor
in Equation (1) for near-source recordings exhibiting the forward directivity velocity pulse:
0:25
SD() 10
= (6)
SD(5%) 5+
Figure 10. Top: N90◦ component of the recording from the soft soil site at SCT
of the 19 September 1985 Michoacan, Mexico, earthquake. Middle: Displacement
response spectra for various damping levels. Bottom: Ratio of 30% to 5% damped
ordinates compared with those obtained from Equations (1) and (2).
The proposal for using the square root of the factors dened in Equation (1) for the special
case of near-source earthquake ground motions was based on the idea that ‘in the near-eld
region, the velocity pulses may reduce the eectiveness of damping’ [30]. Figure 11 shows
a classic near-source accelerogram aected by forward rupture directivity: the Lucerne record
of the 1992 Landers (California) earthquake. The gure shows the time-histories and the
Figure 11. Fault normal component of the Lucerne accelerogram from the 1992 Landers
earthquake: 5% damped pseudo-velocity response spectrum and time-histories of accelera-
tion, velocity and displacement.
pseudo-velocity response spectrum of the resolved fault normal component, as analysed by

Somerville et al. [27]. The velocity pulse can be seen to have a period of close to 4 seconds,
and this clearly manifests on the response spectrum.
Figure 12. Displacement spectra of the fault normal component of the Lucerne accelerogram from the
1992 Landers earthquake (upper) and spectral ratios, normalized to the 5% ordinates, compared with
the ratios given by Equations (1) and (6).
Figure 12 shows the displacement response spectra for various damping levels obtained
from the accelerogram in Figure 11, and compares the spectral ratios with those obtained
from Equations (1) and (6). One should, of course, be cautious about drawing conclusions
from a single record, although the time history in question clearly represents a case of almost
all the energy of the ground shaking being concentrated in a single velocity pulse. The
average ratios obtained from the accelerogram (the short-period variations are the result of
high-frequency excitation in the record due to a thin soil layer at the site) at most periods
agree well with those predicted by the equation of Priestley [30]. Only in the region of the
period of the velocity pulse itself (∼ 4 seconds), are the ratios much closer to those predicted
by the existing equation in EC8.
From Figure 12 it is clear that the velocity pulse does manifest on the 5% damped spectrum
as a distinct peak in the displacements, but the eect is smoothed out by higher damping
ratios. This is an area that requires further investigation, which should be undertaken in tandem
with rening models for the displacement spectra due to near-source ground motions. The
results shown here do suggest that Equation (6) proposed by Priestley [30] for reduced spectral
scaling factors for motions aected by forward directivity is an appropriate modication, but
it is also necessary to ensure that the forward directivity pulse is captured in the denition
of the 5% damped spectrum.
4. INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTS
The results of the previous section suggest that the divergence amongst proposed scaling fac-
tors for adjusting the 5% damped spectral ordinates for higher levels of damping displayed
in Figure 4, may in large part be due to dierences in the characteristics of the ground
motions employed in their derivation. Figure 3 also indicates that another cause of the diver-
gence may be the choice of using median values or some other percentile. Although already
stated previously, we again make our case against the use of values other than the median for
determining these ratios, the fundamental point being that since they are to be applied to a
5% damped spectrum derived from probabilistic hazard analysis, the use of values other than
the median is to double count the inuence of the scatter in the ground-motion prediction
equations. Furthermore, it is in contradiction with the probabilistic approach to make any
arbitrary selection of percentiles on the basis of perceived ‘conservatism’. This is even more
the case here where the ‘conservative’ choice of the ratio of 84-percentile ordinates, as pro-
posed by Lin and Chang [14], actually results in lower—and hence not conservative at all—
spectral displacements for higher damping values.
Instead of making subjective decisions regarding appropriate levels of aleatory variabil-
ity, our approach has been to identify causes for the variation in the median values and to
transform random variability into epistemic uncertainty by identifying additional explanatory
variables to be incorporated into the prediction of the scaling factors.
4.1. Inuence of duration

From simple structural dynamics considerations, the reduction of the spectral ratios is expected
to increase with increasing duration of motion. Consider an undamped oscillator subjected to
a harmonic excitation of its base: with each cycle of motion, it will accumulate more energy
and hence vibrate more energetically, the maximum displacement response thus increasing
monotonically with the number of cycles. For a viscously-damped oscillator with a low level
of damping (say 5%), after the rst cycle of motion has passed, only some of the energy
in the oscillator will have been dissipated by the damping and some will remain, hence with
the next cycle of motion the newly input energy will be added and the vibrations will thus
become stronger with an increasing number of cycles. However, after a certain number of
cycles, a steady-state response is reached whereby the input of energy through excitation
of the base is exactly matched by the dissipation of energy through damping; the spectral
response then remains constant as the number of cycles of motion grows. The higher the
level of damping, the more rapidly the oscillator will reach the steady-state response and the
smaller the dierence between this level and the response to the rst cycle. Once the steady
state is reached, the ratio between the spectral displacements is equal to the reciprocal of the
ratio between the damping values (Figure 13).
Figure 13. Maximum spectral displacements of damped oscillators (middle) of period T and dierent
damping levels subjected to harmonic excitation with the same period of vibration (top) and variation
of spectral ratio with number of cycles of motion (bottom).
The patterns identied in Section 3 show that the spectral ratios are strongly dependent on
earthquake magnitude and source-to-site distance, and weakly dependent on the site classi-
cation. All of these patterns are entirely consistent with the ratios being dependent on the
strong-motion duration. In order to be meaningful, any discussion of duration must specify
which of the 40 or so denitions encountered in the literature is being employed [31].
Bommer and Martinez-Pereira [32] grouped denitions of strong-motion duration into three
generic categories of bracketed, uniform and signicant, but also identied that the most im-
portant distinction amongst denitions is whether the time interval is determined from absolute
levels of motion or from relative proportions of the maximum amplitude or Arias intensity.
Since in the present context the discussion is focused on the ratios of spectral displacements
for oscillators with dierent levels of equivalent viscous damping, the appropriate denitions
Figure 14. Predicted median values of signicant duration from the equations of Abrahamson and Silva
[34] for the signicant duration based on 5 –75% of the total Arias intensity.
are those based on relative measures, such as the signicant duration. This is dened as the
interval between the times at which two specied levels, such as 5% and 95% or 5% and 75%,
of the total Arias intensity are reached [33]. Predictive equations for signicant duration show
that the duration of the shaking grows strongly with magnitude (an observation that holds
for all denitions of duration) and also increases with increasing distance from the seismic
source; the increase of duration at soil sites compared to rock sites is small (Figure 14).
Strong-motion duration is generally not found to be strongly dependent on site classication
when the latter is classied only by the nature of the uppermost layers at the site [32]. This
is not to discount the fact that duration of shaking can be appreciably prolonged at certain
soil sites, but this is interpreted to be due to two- and three-dimensional eects of basins
and the eect of ‘trapped’ energy [35]. The lack of clear trends in most of the graphs in
Figure 9 is therefore still consistent with duration of shaking being the underlying cause of
the variation of the spectral ratios. Of the four equations for predicting spectral ordinates
used in this study, only Boore et al. [22] can be considered to be based on consistent and
reliable site classications. The curves in Figure 9 derived from these equations do show a
clear separation of the behaviour at rock and soil sites, from which it might be concluded
that since the sti and soft soil sites will include some that are in basins, the lower ratios
predicted for these sites are due to the prolongation of shaking at such locations.
The eect of near-source rupture directivity, and the corresponding reduction of the spectral
scaling factors proposed by Priestley [30], is also consistent with the controlling parameter
being duration. The model of Somerville et al. [27] predicts a reduction of the signicant
duration (5–75% of Arias intensity) by 60% due to forward rupture directivity experienced
by the Lucerne accelerogram (Figure 11).
Returning to Figure 4, however, there is a case that would appear to contradict this in-
terpretation: the ratios predicted by Tolis and Faccioli [9], based on data from the Mw = 6:9
Kobe earthquake, are higher than those obtained by Bommer et al. [8], based on a Eu-
ropean data set concentrated in the magnitude range from 5.5 to 7.0. However, there is
once again an explanation that is consistent with the interpretation of duration as being the
key parameter: the Kobe earthquake was an almost pure bi-lateral fault rupture, hence the
duration of shaking at near-source sites was about one half of the values that would be
expected from a unilateral rupture [32]. The curves in Figure 14 would suggest that the
impact of bi-lateral rupture on the duration of shaking would have been equivalent to re-
ducing the magnitude by one unit to about Mw = 6. Bi-lateral fault ruptures in major earth-
quakes are rare [36] hence such adjustments for the duration do not often need to be made.
However, the 1989 Loma Prieta (California) earthquake (Mw = 6:9) was another case of
almost pure bi-lateral rupture; recordings from this event constitute 44% of the dataset of
Boore et al. [22] hence the magnitude-dependence inferred from their equations may, in ef-
fect, be even higher.
The ratios in the lower graph on Figure 13 are much lower than any of those depicted in
Figure 4, conrming that although general trends may be inferred from consideration of har-
monic signals, they are not comparable with non-stationary earthquake signals. Nonetheless,
Figure 13 does serve to support the interpretation of duration as the controlling parame-
ter. Denitions for counting the eective number of cycles of motion in accelerograms vary
almost as much as those for measuring the duration [37], but use is made here of the equation
of Liu et al. [38] for the equivalent number of cycles of motion at 65% of the maximum
amplitude. For a site at 10 km from the source, the equation predicts that the number of full
cycles will be 3 for Mw = 5:5, 5 for Mw = 6:5 and 10 for Mw = 7:5. According to the graph at
the bottom of Figure 13, increasing the number of cycles from 3 to 10 results in a reduction
of the ratio of the 30% to the 5% damped spectral displacement of about 40%, which is
about twice the reduction inferred from the equations of Bommer et al. [23] for the same
increase of magnitude (Figure 6). This dierence emphasizes the fact that transient earthquake
ground motions are not harmonic signals and hence the spectral ratios from accelerograms will
generally be much higher than those shown in Figure 13. However, the accelerogram from
Mexico City shown in Figure 10 came very close to reaching the steady state as a result of
the response of the lacustrine deposits underlying the city; it can be seen that at the dominant
period of about 2 seconds, the spectral ratio for 30% to 5% damped ordinates was about 0.25,
tending towards the value of 0.167 for steady-state response to a harmonic excitation.
4.2. Implementation in seismic design codes

A simple and direct way of capturing the magnitude- and distance-dependence of the spec-
tral displacement ordinates at dierent damping levels would be to dene, through separate
zonation maps, a series of design spectra with dierent damping values for DBD in future
seismic design codes. However, this would be cumbersome and would often require interpo-
lation for intermediate values of damping, so it is preferable to retain the practice of dening
the 5% damped spectrum and scaling the ordinates for higher values of equivalent damping.
The question is then: how to incorporate the dependence of the scaling factor on magnitude
and distance? In EC8, where the uniform hazard spectrum is approximated through the use
of two spectral shapes (Type 1 for regions of high seismicity and Type 2 for regions where
earthquakes of magnitude > 5:5 are not expected), the simple solution is to apply dierent
scaling factors to the two spectra: factors even higher than those from Equation (1) could be
applied to the Type 2 spectrum, whereas for the Type 1 spectrum the scaling factors could
be appreciably lower.
For code formats other than the two spectral shapes of EC8, however, there needs to be
another approach. One option would be to provide zonation maps in terms of duration but
this is not recommended because disaggregation of the hazard would often show that the
duration at a given location is dominated by a dierent earthquake scenario than that driving
the spectral displacement at the period of interest. This would then lead to the 5% damped
spectral ordinates and the scaling factors for higher damping levels being incompatible. Since
in current code formats the magnitude and distance of the controlling events are generally not
visible to the user, use can be made of the parameters used to dene the spectral ordinates.
The denition of long-period spectral displacements will require at least three parameters to
be mapped, the rst two being spectral ordinates at short and intermediate response periods,
the third being either a long-period ordinate or, as in the NEHRP guidelines [12] discussed
in the Introduction, the control period for the constant displacement plateau. Bommer et al.
[8] proposed the alternative approach of mapping PGA, PGD and the peak ground velocity
(PGV), and then dening the corner periods of the spectrum from their ratios. Since, like
the NEHRP period TL , the ratio between PGD and PGV at rock sites is a function primarily
of the earthquake magnitude—and only weakly of distance [39, 40]—the adjustment to the
spectral scaling factor could be dened from these values.
5. CONCLUSION
Direct displacement-based seismic design and assessment require input in the form of displace-
ment response spectra over long period ranges (up to the product of the yield period and the
square root of the ductility demand factor) and for a number of damping levels (up to about
30% of critical). Spectral displacements for long periods and high damping levels are also
directly relevant to the design of bridges and buildings with base isolation and supplementary
damping devices. In seismic design codes, the spectra for damping levels higher than 5%
are obtained by applying scaling factors to the ordinates of the 5% damped spectrum. These
factors have been shown to be weakly dependent on response period other than in those re-
gions where the spectral displacements converge to zero or to PGD. At intermediate response
periods, the spectral scaling factors are currently dened only in terms of the damping ratio
and there is signicant disagreement amongst the proposed factors.
This study has shown that the spectral scaling factors vary with seismological features: the
factors decrease with increasing magnitude, decrease with increasing distance, and to a lesser
extent, increase for softer site conditions. These variations all reect a consistent trend of
the scaling factors decreasing with increasing duration of the ground motion. We have not
presented duration-dependent scaling factors because these should be obtained concurrently
with the derivation of displacement spectra for wide period ranges, including the eect of
near-source rupture directivity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the inuence
that duration has on the spectral scaling factors and to explore the extent and nature of
this inuence. These ndings can be incorporated into ongoing work to dene displacement
response spectra for design, thus producing more reliable models and improved estimates of
the design motions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are indebted to Professors Nigel Priestley and Jose Ignacio Restrepo, amongst others, for
discussions that contributed to the motivation to undertake this work. Special thanks are also due to
Dr Robert W. Graves of URS Corporation for providing the rotated Lucerne accelerogram. Thanks are
also due to Dr David M. Boore for his SMSIM program and to Fleur Strasser for guidance on running
simulations. We are also grateful to Jonathan Hancock and Dr Sarada K. Sarma for useful discussions
related to this topic.
A rst draft of this paper was reviewed by the following people: Sinan Akkar, Juliet Bird, David
Boore, Michele Calvi, Helen Crowley, Damian Grant, Jonathan Hancock, Mervyn Kowalsky, Eduardo
Miranda, Rui Pinho and Nigel Priestley. We are indebted to all of them for their insightful comments
and helpful suggestions, all of which have contributed to signicant improvement of the manuscript.
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EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

Earthquake Engng Struct. Dyn. 2005; 34:145–165

Scaling of spectral displacement ordinates with damping ratios

Julian J. Bommer∗; † and Rishmila Mendis

Received 6 July 2004

Figure 1. Displacement spectra dened in Eurocode 8.

exponentially with earthquake magnitude; values of 12 seconds correspond to regions aected

2. SPECTRAL REDUCTION FACTORS

3. FACTORS INFLUENCING SPECTRAL SCALING

In order to explore systematic inuences of characteristics of the earthquake ground motion

Table I. Characteristics of ground-motion prediction equations used in this study.

Trifunac and Lee [21] 438 (N.A) Rhyp

Boore et al. [22] 271 Mw RJB PSV 5, 10, 20%

Bommer et al. [23] 183 Ms RJB SD 5, 10, 15,

Berge-Thierry et al. [20] 483 Ms Rhyp PSA 5, 7, 10,

Figure 6. Variation of the spectral ratios (relative to the 5% damped ordinates) at

3.2. Source-to-site distance

3.3. Site classication

3.4. Near-source directivity eects

pseudo-velocity response spectrum of the resolved fault normal component, as analysed by

4. INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTS

4.1. Inuence of duration

4.2. Implementation in seismic design codes

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