SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
CATBALOGAN CITY, SAMAR

TOPIC 6

ELASTIC AND INELASTIC SPECTRA

A Written Report as Partial Fulfillment in the Requirements for

CE 16- EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

Prepared by:
Aban, Diño O.
Pabua, Lemar V.
BSCE 3A

Submitted to:
ENGR. NOEL S. PALOMAS
Instructor
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

6.0 Elastic and Inelastic Spectra

Strong‐motion records are three‐component (two horizontal components and a
vertical component) time histories recorded by accelerometers in analogue or digital
form. These records may be used to conduct response‐history dynamic analyses and
derive response spectra. The latter are described herein.

Figure 3.6 The Tabas (Iran, 1978) record filtered at 5, 10 and 15 seconds cut‐off as well as
baseline correction only; effect on acceleration (a) and displacement (b) spectra.
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

A response spectrum is a plot of the maxima of the acceleration, velocity and

displacement response of single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) systems with various
natural periods when subjected to an earthquake ground motion. A family of curves is
usually calculated for a given excitation, showing the effect of variation of the structural
damping. For many practical structural applications it is sufficient to employ the
maximum (or ‘spectral’) values of the above response parameters rather than their
values at each instant during the time history. Earthquake input may be defined by
response spectra of various forms, that is elastic, inelastic, parameterised and smoothed
as shown in Figure 3.1. Such forms are required to perform modal spectral analysis and
adaptive pushover with spectrum scaling as illustrated in Sections 4.5.1.1 and 4.5.2.2.
They are also essential for capacity spectrum assessment and displacement‐based
design (e.g. Bozorgnia and Bertero, 2004, among others). Response spectra can be
computed from earthquake accelerograms by employing one of several computer
programs; some of which are presented in Section 3.8.1.

Elastic response spectra are derived analytically by evaluating the Duhamel

integral which provides the total displacement response of SDOF systems subjected to
earthquake loading. Since superposition applies (for elastic systems) the convolution
integral is valid. The principle of superposition states that the effect of a number of
simultaneously applied actions is equivalent to the superposition of their individual
effects considered one at a time. The equation of dynamic equilibrium for linear elastic
structural systems with mass m, stiffness k and damping c is as follows:
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

where the term üg is the ground acceleration. Thus, Eq. (3.14) expresses the
equilibrium of inertial m ü, damping cu and elastic k u forces and the earthquake
loading –m üg . It can be demonstrated by using principles of structural dynamics
that the maximum value of the displacement Sd , defined as ‘spectral displacement’,
is equal to (e.g. Chopra, 2002):

in which τ is a time variable chosen arbitrarily within the duration of the strong motion
and ω the natural frequency of the undamped system. Moreover, ωd is the damped
circular frequency given as:

while ξ is the viscous damping of the oscillator expressed as a percentage of the critical
value ccrit. Note that ccrit = 2mω and ξ = c/ccrit. Ordinary structural systems exhibit
viscous damping which ranges between 0.5 and about 10% as given in Tables 2.6 and
2.9. As a consequence, the values of undamped and damped frequencies in Eq. (3.16)
are similar and hence ω can be used instead of ωd . Displacement response spectra are
essential for displacement‐based design. Extensive analytical work has been conducted
by Bommer and Elnashai (1999) and Tolis and Faccioli (1999) to derive parameterised
displacement spectra. The latter spectra are discussed in Section 3.4.3.1.

On the other hand, the maximum velocity Sv can be approximated, assuming harmonic
motion, by the product of the spectral displacement Sd and the fundamental frequency
ω of the SDOF:
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

which is defined as ‘spectral pseudo‐velocity’ and corresponds to the integral at the

numerator in Eq. (3.15). The prefix ‘pseudo’ shows that Sv is not the actual peak
velocity, which would be obtained from differentiating the displacement expression.
Nonetheless, for the practical range of damping in structural earthquake engineering
mentioned earlier and for low‐to‐medium period systems, pseudo‐velocity spectra are a
close approximation of the true relative velocity spectra.

In a comprehensive study by Sadek et al. (2000) based on statistical analysis of 40

damped SDOFs subjected to 72 ground motions, it was shown that the above
approximation holds for periods in the neighbourhood of 0.5 seconds as shown in
Figure 3.7. However, differences are observed as the period and the damping ratios
increase. Velocity spectra are of importance in seismic design because they are a
measure of the energy transmitted into the oscillator (Housner, 1956).
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

Figure 3.7 Mean ratio of maximum relative velocity to pseudo‐velocity (a) and maximum
absolute acceleration to pseudo‐acceleration (b) for SDOF structures as a function of the
damping. (After Sadek et al., 2000.)

Similarly, the ‘spectral pseudo‐acceleration’ Sa is expressed as follows:

Thus, the acceleration spectrum is derived by multiplying each ordinate of the

velocity spectrum by the natural frequency ω of the SDOF. However, for structures with
supplemental devices, for example with passive and/or active dampers or base
isolation devices, the differences between maximum absolute acceleration and Sa
increase as a function of the natural period T as shown in Figure 3.7. The true absolute
acceleration spectra can be computed by differentiating twice the displacement
expression from, for example, the Duhamel integral. It is instructive to note that the
acceleration response spectra are related directly to the base shear used in seismic
design and hence they are generally implemented in force‐based codes of practice, for
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

example Eqs. (4.34) and (4.35.1) provided in Section 4.6.3. The relevant alternative for
displacement‐based design is the relative displacement spectrum.

The procedure to derive elastic spectra is schematically depicted in Figure 3.8. The
computational scheme can be summarised as follows:

(i) Select the earthquake record from databanks, for example using those

given in Section 3.7;

(ii) Select a T–ξ pair, that is the fundamental period of vibration and the damping
ratio for the SDOF. Values of interest for structural earthquake engineering
applications range between 0.01 and 5 seconds for T, for very rigid and very
flexible structures, respectively, and 0% to 20% for ξ, for lightly and highly
damped systems, respectively as illustrated in Section 2.3.5;

(iii) Select a numerical method to integrate the equation of motion as expressed, for
example in Eq. (3.14). Several reliable methods are available in the literature as
also discussed in Section 4.6.1.2: their numerical stability and accuracy are
reviewed in several textbooks (e.g. Hughes, 1987; Bathe, 1996);

(iv) Compute the response history for the given earthquake record. The peak value is
the spectral displacement Sd ;

(v) Compute the pseudo‐velocity Sv and pseudo‐acceleration Sa by using Eqs. (3.17)

and (3.18), respectively. Alternatively, the true maximum relative velocity and
absolute acceleration can be determined by means of numerical algorithms;

(vi) Select a new T–ξ pair and repeat steps (i) to (v);

(vii) Plot the maxima of response versus the fundamental period or frequency for
various damping values. Structural earthquake engineers are generally more
familiar with spectral response‐period format.
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

Figure 3.9 shows the response spectra for the 1940 Imperial Valley (117 El Centro
Station, closest distance to the fault rupture d = 12 km) and the 1994 Northridge (24087
Arleta, Nordhoff Fire Station, closest distance to the fault d = 3.9 km) earthquakes,
which are representative of strong motions registered for stations far and close to the
seismic source, respectively. The records are North–South horizontal components. Two
common features can be observed for Sd and Sv . Spectral ordinates for all damping
levels increase with the period from zero to some maximum value and then descend to
converge at the values of the PGD and PGV, respectively, at long periods. The damping
smoothes the local peaks in the response curves. The value of Sa is equal to the PGA at
T = 0 seconds (i.e. for rigid structures) and for long periods (i.e. for very flexible
structures) the response tends to zero asymptotically. These qualitative aspects can be
generalised to all earthquake records. Differences in shape between long and short
station‐to‐ source distances response spectra are related to the frequency content of the
input motion as mentioned in Section 1.3.1. The former are generally broadband signals
while the latter are narrowband, pulse‐like records. The short distance records often
exhibit characteristics of the seismic source and are referred to as near‐source strong‐
motion (Bolt, 1996).
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

The use of elastic spectra derives from dynamic analysis in the frequency domain
approach. In the latter, the multi‐degree‐of‐freedom (MDOF) system is considered as a
compendium of

Figure 3.8 Derivation of elastic spectra. Time history of the 1999 Kocaeli (Turkey) earthquake
(a), acceleration response spectrum (b), time history response for a single degree of freedom
system with natural period of 0.5 seconds-stiff system - (c) and 1.5 seconds - flexible system (d).
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

Figure 3.9 Elastic response spectra for the 1940 Imperial Valley (a,c,e) and the 1994 Northridge
(b,d,f) earthquakes for various damping (1, 5, 10, 15 and 20%): acceleration (a,b), velocity (c,d)
and displacement (e,f).

Elastic spectra are useful tools for structural design and assessment. They,
however, do not account for inelasticity, stiffness reduction and strength degradation
experienced by structures during severe earthquakes as illustrated in Sections 2.3.1.2
and 2.3.2.3. Structural systems are not designed to resist earthquake forces in their
elastic range, but for very few cases because of the economy of the construction.
Concepts of energy absorption and plastic redistribution are used to reduce the elastic
 Samar State University | College of Engineering
BS Civil Engineering
CE 16 (EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING)

seismic forces by as much as ~80%. The inelastic behaviour of structures can be

quantified by the ductility factor μ, defined in Section 2.3.3. High μ‐values correspond
to large inelastic deformations; for linearly elastic systems the ductility factor is unity.
Thus, inelastic spectra for a target ductility μ, that is level of inelasticity, were estimated
simply by dividing the ordinates of the elastic spectra by the R‐factors (Newmark and
Hall, 1969), as illustrated in Section 3.4.4. Through extensive analyses of elastic and
inelastic spectra, three regions of response were identified as a function of the
fundamental period. The above breakthrough reference opened the door for intense
research relating the response modification factor to the period of the structure and to
significant characteristics of the input motion, as described in Section 3.4.4.

Inelastic spectra depend not only upon the characteristics of the ground motion,
but also on the non‐linear cyclic characteristics of the structural system. This
complicates the problem for structural earthquake engineers. The reduction of the
elastic spectra by employing R‐factors given in Section 3.4.4 is the simplest and most
popular approach to derive inelastic spectra. Such an approach is employed within
codes of practice for seismic design to evaluate design base shears as illustrated in
Section 4.6.3. However, this approach makes use of static concepts to scale the elastic
spectrum, obtained from dynamic analysis. It is, as such, insensitive to characteristics of
the earthquake motion which affect the hysteretic damping. More accurate results can
be obtained by inelastic dynamic analysis of SDOFs subjected to earthquake input (e.g.
Elghadamsi and Mohraz, 1987; Vidic et al., 1994; Fajfar, 1995). To demonstrate these
important points, elastic and inelastic spectra for two records are considered, namely
the 1994 Northridge earthquake (Sylmar Hospital station) and the 1995 Hyogo‐ken
Nanbu (Kobe JMA station). The plots are shown for a ductility factor μ of 2 and 4 in
Figure 3.10.