Reliability Engineering and System Safety 23 (1988) 109-126

Design Charts for Random Vibrations of Elasto-plastic

Oscillators Subjected to Kanai-Tajimi Spectra

R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik & F. Ziegler

Technische Universit~itWien, Institut fiir AllgemeineMechanik,

Wiedner Hauptstra[3e 8-10, A-1040 Wien, Austria

(Received 15 January 1988)

A BSTRA CT

The yielding frame of Fig. 1 is approximated by a single degree of freedom

elasto-plastie oscillator in a plastic hinge model A probabilistic theory with
effective random loading of the time-invariant linear structure is used to
calculate the stochastic response. After a short review of this theory of
effective earthquake loading, nondimensional results of the quasi-stationary
elasto-plastic response are presented in the graphical form of design charts,
where the statistical response measures are given as functions of similarity
numbers, and the influence of the characteristic ground parameters of a
Kanai-Tajimi power spectrum representation is studied.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper is concerned with yielding structures approximated by a single

degree of freedom elasto-plastic oscillator in the classical plastic hinge
model, see Fig. 1. For this problem, pioneering work has been done by
Vanmarcke et al. x -3 by splitting the total response into the elastic part and
the drift and calculating the stochastic inelastic response measures from the
statistics of the fully associated linear oscillator.
This theory h a s been improved by taking into account the energy
dissipation due to yielding for the loading of the linear system. 4- 6 In this
latter theory of effective loading the linear oscillator is driven by the ground
motion and by excitation forces due to yielding of the structure.
Mean single yield increments, r.m.s, values of the accumulated drift and
109
Reliabilio' Engineering and System Safety 0951-8320/88/$03-50 © 1988 Elsevier Science
Publishers Ltd. Printed in Great Britain.
I10 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

I
m
~-//~-////.-///H/.-~-//~ / /
×

Fig. l. Basic model of the elasto-plastic frame: plastic hinges in beams.

the average rate of plastic clumps are calculated in nondimensional form

and presented as functions of similarity numbers. A first passage probability
theory is used to compute inelastic response spectra using the results of the
above theory. The numerical results computed with the effective loading
theory fit well to simulation results of Yanev and co-workers. 2
In a second step, the influence of the characteristic ground parameters of a
Kanai-Tajimi power spectrum representation of the earthquake loading is
studied, and the results are presented in graphical form.
Especially, parameters of the 1976 Friuli Earthquake which are believed
to be representative for European seismic events, are used and lead to design
charts in the form of contour lines depending on a minimal number of
structural inputs.
At last, the variation of the predominant frequency of the ground motion
is studied for various ground damping values.

2 SHORT REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF EFFECTIVE

EARTHQUAKE LOADING

The equation of motion of a frame which can be approximated by a single

degree of freedom oscillator 7 (see Fig. 1) is:

m(.~ + ~"~) = - Q ~1)

x is the relative displacement of the mass m, ~;gis the ground acceleration and
Q denotes the restoring force. Using an elastic-ideal plastic material law in
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 111

the classical plastic hinge model (see Fig. 1), the total deflection x of the mass
m is d e c o m p o s e d into the linear part ~ and the plastic part x N, called the drift:
x = ~ + xN (2)

x N is the instantaneous value of the p e r m a n e n t deformation. This leads to a

quasi-linear form of the restoring force:
Q = c~ = m~2~ (3)

Inserting eqns (2) and (3) into (1) and putting the nonlinear part to the forcing
side, renders the equation of m o t i o n for the linear oscillator:
~'+ 2(O)o ~ + eoZo{= _(~,, + j/N) (4)
where a small viscous d a m p i n g ( and the linear eigenfrequency a) g = c/m are
introduced.
Hence, the linear oscillator is driven by the ground m o t i o n w, and the
nonlinear drift process x N. The stiffness and the d a m p i n g of the system do
not change due to the nonlinearity. Between the intervals of plastic actions,
the drift x N remains constant. The linear solution part { of the elasto-plastic
oscillator does not cross the elastic barrier a; { = a = const during yielding.
Thus, the kinetic energy (m/2)~a) at the beginning of yielding is balanced by
the dissipated work due to yielding:
e{ra} = --E{Wd,p,}
m "2
E{ Ta} = ~- E{~(a)} (5)

E{ Wd,pl } = -- F6
where the expectation operation E{ } is used because the earthquake
loading is treated as a stochastic process. ~(a) denotes the velocity of the
linear system at the barrier a, F = mco2a,is the yielding force and the mean
yield increment 6 is the average a m o u n t of plastic deformation during a
single isolated barrier crossing of the total deformation. Using
rnt°2 2
E{ra} = ~ - - a ~ (6)

V a n m a r c k e gives a simple approximation for 6:

6 -- E{IAx~I} = a~/2a (7)
Assuming the well k n o w n white noise approximation, the variance of the
elastic m o t i o n o-~ can be calculated:
a~ = ~S,,(~Oo)/4~COo3 (8)
112 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

S~g(O9o) is the value of the one-sided power spectral density function of the
ground acceleration at the linear eigenfrequency oJo.
It is customary to characterize the build up and decay of the ground
m o t i o n by means of a time dependent envelope function ~(t). Thus
S~(o~, t) = ~9(t)Sg,(cn) (9)
is the evolutionary power spectral density of the ground acceleration.
In eqn (8), ~O(t)= H(t); H(t) is the Heaviside step function and the linear
response is assumed to be quasi-stationary.
Equation (7) has been improved by taking into account the work of the
ground m o t i o n E{ W~} during the yield interval 4- 6--the energy balance at
the barrier becomes:
- E { L} = E{ wd..,} + E{ (10)
To approximate E{ W~} the results given by Grossmayer 9 are used:
E{ W~} = E{ Aty}mrcS,,(O9o)/2 (11)
The yielding time interval is approximately: 8
E{Aty} -~ a¢/a~o o (12)
Thus
a~
6 = ~aa (1 + ~S~(t~o)/acaco 3) (13)

In the case of small viscous d a m p i n g factors ( and moderate yielding barriers

a, yielding tends to occur in clusters of plastic action, so called clumps. 1
Denoting the change in the drift due to a single isolated clump by di, the first
few statistical m o m e n t s of di can be approximated in the form:
E{]d,[} = 3, E{di} = 0, E{d~} = a~, -~ 26 l (14)
which is a result of the simulation studies of Yanev et al. 2
Other pertinent statistic response measures of the drift are the mean
n u m b e r of yield level crossings per unit time of the total displacement, 2va,
and the mean rate of plastic clumps,/~a" Following Vanmarcke et al, ~- 3 Va
a n d / a , are approximated by means of the corresponding values resulting
from the classical level crossing statistics of a linear system according to
Rice. ~o Note, that the linear solution part ~ of an elasto-plastic system does
not cross the yield barrier a, yield level crossings of the total displacement x,
however, can be approximated by the classical linear formulas for v,:
v, = vo exp ( -- a2/2o'~) (I 5)
vo = (22/2o)1/2/2rc _ O~o/2rc
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 113

where

do9

8~¢(o~) = S,,(oJ)ln(o~)l 2 (16)

with the frequency response function o f the linear structure:
H(~) = (~o~ + ~o2 + 2 i ( ~ o ~ ) - 1 i= ~ (17)

In the same way, the average rate o f clumps

]Aa = 2va/E{Na} (18)
is approximated by the linear formula, see Vanmarcke: 1 -3

q = (1 - 22/),o22) U2 ~ 2(¢/n) U2

Note, that p~- ~ gives the mean time between clumps of plastic actions, This is
an important response measure with respect to the danger of material
degradation and collapse.
Furthermore, the variance of the accumulated drift can be approximated
by means ofp~. The total accumulated drift is the sum of the d~ o f e q n (14):
Nc

xN(t) = ) ' di (20)

i=1

where Arc is the number o f clumps in a time interval 0 < z < t, and it is
assumed, that Arc has a Poisson distribution proportional to lq, and the time
between clumps is expected to have an exponential distribution with mean
1/p.. Hence,
E{Nc} ~-- Ia~t (21)
and
a~N(t) = E{Nc}a~, = 2!a,62t (22)
which is backed by simulations.
F r o m the above formulation it is clearly seen, that 6 and #a are stationary,
while the variance of the accumulated drift is proportional to the time t. This
is a consequence of the stationarity o f the linear solution part. Hence, the
total problem is not stationary in the stochastic sense (it is not even weakly
stationary) and therefore it will be called quasi-stationary. The extension to
a nonstationary formulation for a¢(t), 6(0 and pa(t) is given in Refs 4-6.
114 R. Hasenzagl, H. lrschik, 1~: Ziegh, r

Using the above results for the drift process, probabilistic inelastic
response spectra are calculated: The approximation for the probability ~that
the drift does not exceed a given level b during the duration s,
P = exp ( - [ e x p ( E { N c ( s ) } ) - 1] exp(-b/6)> (23)
is used to calculate the level b for a given probability, e.g. P = 0 . 5 .
Accordingly, a ductility ratio is defined:
tl(P, s ) = 1 + b/a (24)
and is interpreted as an inelastic response spectrum.
With the exception of minor improvements, formulas (5) to (24) follow
Vanmarcke et al., 1 - 3 where the fully associated linear system is used for the
calculation of the inelastic response measures, i.e. the original earthquake
loading O,(t)S,,(~o) defines the loading of the linear system.
It has been shown in eqn (4), however, that the ~-process is driven by the
earthquake excitation as well as by the drift process and that an effective
earthquake loading should be used. To account for the effective loading
including the drift, an effective envelope function 0e(t, ~) with frequency
dependence is introduced. Hence,
S~g(o~, t) = ~9~(t)~e(t, ~o)Sg~(e~) (25)
is the effective evolutionary input power spectral density. Again restricting
to the quasi-stationary case, ff~ becomes time independent and ~b~(og)S~g(e~)
has to be used in eqns (8) and (16) instead of Sg~(~). In order to calculate ~%,
an energy consideration is introduced: It is required, that the change in the

1000
l~t,3o ///
500
{=0,05 9'

200

100

50
/ 3 2
H= ~ o Fig. 2. Average eigentime between clumps
Sgg of plastic-action #£1tOo; • simulation re-
15 ,,,, .... I .... ~ .... I .... , .... I ........ sults and - - . - - theory of Vanmarcke et
al.1-3 for ~ = 0-02, - - present theory for
0 100 200 300 /+00 = 0-02 and 0"05.
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 115

average input power of the elastic system (without and including the drift) is
balanced by the mean power dissipated due to yielding:
E{L,}(1 - ~Oe(o~))=/~aF0 (26)
E{ L,} = ½rcmS,,(Ogo)
/~a and 6 being nonlinear functions of ~,o(~oo)= ~'e via tr¢ of eqn (8), eqn (26)
becomes a nonlinear equation for ~O, which can be solved on a pocket
computer using standard iteration procedures. Thus, contrary to Van-
marcke et al., nonlinearity explicitly enters the mathematical formulations,
which is appropriate to elasto-plastic problems.
An an example for this improvement, Fig. 2 shows the average time
between plastic clumps compared to theoretical and simulated results of
Vanmarcke et al. ~-3 It is seen, that the present theory fits perfectly well to
the simulation results.

3 D I M E N S I O N A L ANALYSIS A N D N U M E R I C A L RESULTS

To reduce the number of input parameters necessary for the quasi-

stationary formulation, dimensional analysis is used and results in a minimal
number of characteristic similarity parameters. The nonlinear power
balance eqn (26) for q~eis determined by a given set of four input parameters
in the form:
~be =f(tn o, ~, a, S,g((Oo)) (27)
is nondimensional; only three dimensional inputs, namely COo,a and S~=((Oo)
are present in this equation. Following Buckingham's theorem (see e.g.
Bridgman and Ho1111), this three inputs can be replaced by 3 - 2 = 1
nondimensional similarity complex, because two dimensions occur: length
and time. Using classical methods of dimensional analysis, this number
becomes:
H = ~o3a2/S,,(09o) (28)
The nondimensional input parameters H and ~ are characterizing the quasi-
stationary elasto-plastic random vibration completely. Oscillators with the
same values of H and ~ result in the same nondimensional response
measures:
tr~/a 2 = rc~bJ4~H (29)
6/a = n~k~[1 + (4~n/~H)I/2]/8~H (30)

#a/~Oo = 1 { 1 -- exp [ -- 2((2H/nqJ~)l/2]} exp( - 2(H/rtd/~) (31)

trxN/ax//-~ot=(2(!)2~o) '/2 (32)

116 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

v,
1.0-
.9 / 11

8. ff ,-o.o, o;..,

7"~/ .st ,, ,..., , ,,,,.,,,: ,,,. .... s.

: ] - "1 10 100 1000 3 2
"~ H: COo"e'
b Sgg

0 /+00 800 1200 1600

Fig. 3. Q u a s i s t a t i o n a r y effective e n v e l o p e s ~ke as a f u n c t i o n o f H; - - ( = 0'02, --.-
= 0-05.

Those response measures are represented in graphical form dependent on H

for viscous damping ( = 0.02 and 0.05, respectively. Figure 3 shows the
effective envelope function ~0e,while Fig. 2 gives the mean eigentime between
plastic clumps. In the range of severe plastification @e as well as #~- 1 should
approach zero, and it is seen, that for values H < 25 the present theory does
no longer apply. Within this range, the results are marked with dashed lines.
The region of H < 25, however, in practice should be avoided due to the
danger of severe damage, material degradation and collapse of the structure.
Figure 4 shows the mean single yield increment in the nondimensional form
6/a. The case ( = 0.02 is compared to simulation results and the more
sophisticated theory ofGrossmayer. 9 It is seen again that the present theory
fits well to the simulation results for H > 25 and gives save-sided results
otherwise. (We note a slight difference between the definition of 6 in the
present paper compared to Grossmayer, which becomes noticeable in the
range H < 25). At last, Fig. 5 gives the nondimensional r.m.s value of the
accumulated drift trxN/ax~ot. Accordingly, the variance of the drift x N in
the quasi-stationary formulation is a linear function of time (see eqn (22)). To
make the representation in Fig. 5 'independent' of time, the r.m.s, has to be
divided by a times the square root of the eigentime ~Oot.
The above formulation of the nonlinear statistic response measures as a
function of H is independent of the explicit form of the power spectral
density function S~g(to) and gives a global demonstration of the accuracy of
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 117

0.5

0.1
0.05 0.1 0.5
Fig. 4. Dimensionless mean single yield increment 6/a as a function of 1 / x / ~ ; © •
simulation results and - - - theory of Grossmayer 9 for ( = 0'02, present theory for
( = 0"02 and 0"05.

.20 ,\ \\
\ \

.15 g: 0.05

.10 =Q02

.05

, ,
0 '
10 20 50 100 200 500
Fig. 5. Nondimensional r.m.s, value axN/ax/~toto f accumulated drift for a viscous damping
= 0.02 and 0"05.
118 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

the method. In order to study the influence of the structural and loading
parameters on the elasto-plastic response in more detail, however, the
ground excitation is characterized by the well established Kanai-Tajimi
representation
[I + 4C~z(~o/cog)2]So
S,,(o~) = [ 1 - (co/cog)2] 2 _~_ 4(2(co/0~,)2 (33)

co~ and ~g denote characteristic frequency and damping values of the ground
motion, respectively, So is a measure of the intensity of the earthquake. In
the following we use o~g = 2 0 s - t and ~ = 0.8 which has been reported by
Grossmayer et al. 13 for the 1976 Friuli earthquake. Choosing a r.m.s value of
the g r o u n d acceleration of a,;: = 0.127g, gives an intensity factor
So = 260"10 -4 m2/sec 3, see Ref. 12, g is the acceleration due to gravity. The
power spectral density function S,g(o~) with the above values of coS, ~, and So
is shown in Fig. 6. Also shown is a power spectral density function
corresponding to the earthquake code of Portugal 14 for rock. Note the
remarkable coincidence in the frequency content. To take into account a
variation of the load intensity, S~(co) of Fig. 6 is scaled by a loading factor 2
and is introduced into the similarity number

H = a2co~/2S~(O~o) (34)
The similarity number H thus is splitted into the linear eigenfrequency
fo = ~Oo/2~ and into the reduced yielding barrier a/x/-2~: Elasto-plastic
oscillators with the same value of fo and a/x/~ result in the same

I,-21"31
500

t,O0

300 / \\.
200 i \\.,
\
100

0 .................................................................................................... t.o l~,(11

0 10 20 30 ~0 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Fig. 6. Power spectral density S,,(~o) of the ground acceleration in Kanai-Tajimi
representation as a function of co, co~= 20see -l, (g=0.8 and So =260 × 10-4m2/sec3:
...... gS~((o) according to Ref. 14, p. 52.
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 119

nondimensional response measures of the drift process. Contour lines of

H = const are used as design charts, displaying the important structural
parameters, namely a andfo, and the loading parameter 2 for a fixed viscous
damping (. Using this contour line representation, the nondimensional
mean single yield increment ~/a and the dimensionless r.m.s ax,~/ax/~otot are
shown in Figs 7 and 8, respectively, for different ranges offo and ( = 0.02 as a

o/~-'tom]

14
• ta/¢'~- [ cml
12 10

I0

fotHZ] 2
0.8 I 1,5 2 2 3 5 f0iHzJ
Fig. 7. Dimensionless mean single yield increment 6/a as a function of a / ~ . and of the
linear eigenfrequency fo = ~Oo/(2~) for the power spectral density of Fig. 6, ~ = 0'02.

function ofa/x/~. Equations (23) and (24) provide the ductility ratio of Fig. 9
for a given probability P - - 0 . 5 and an excitation duration s = 4 5 T 0 for
( = 0 . 0 2 , T o = 1/f0. Thus ductility is connected with probability and
earthquake (strong-) motion duration, and Fig. 9 shows the undesired effect
of plasticity, that is the occurrence of permanent deformation, crucial for the
reliability of the structure. It is emphasized that the desired effect of ductility,
namely the increasing energy dissipation, should not be considered as the
only point of view.
In the last step, the influence of the characteristic ground parameters co,
and ~, are studied. For this sake, new similarity numbers are derived. ~5
Considering the Kanai-Tajimi eqn (33) in eqn (27), the latter contains four
dimensional inputs: a, coo, cog and So. According to Buckingham's theorem,
120 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

Q / ~" [£m ] olv~-lcm]

3,5
30 tct o '

• ']0,~

,1

~[Hz}
.054-,,,,,, , I .... I'"L'~lC[Hz],o
0,g 1.5 3.5 3.5 4 5 6 7,5
Fig. 8. Dimensionless r.m.s o f a c c u m u l a t e d drift axN/ax/~ot as a function o f the reduced
yielding barrier a/x~ , Sgg((~) o f Fig. 6, ( = 0.02.

alET Ic~]
9
1/-+
12
10
8 \
2
6
t,.
1
2
**lh,,,! , i , i i I I i , 6 iiii1 ii tlllll]lllll|ll , ] II I I

.8 1 1.5 2 fo[Hz] 2 3 4 5 ~o[ Hz]

Fig. 9. Ductility ratio q for a probability P = 0"5 and an e a r t h q u a k e d u r a t i o n o f s = 4 5 T o,
To = l/fo for different values of./o and a/~f2~ , Sg~(eo) o f Fig. 6, ~ = 0"02.
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 121

these inputs are replaced by two similarity numbers, namely the frequency
ratio COo/COS and the new similarity complex.
R = coo a2/ (35)
Full physical similarity is given by the four similarity n u m b e r s ~, ~8, c%/Wo, R.
The results are calculated for various values of the ratio c%/coo and for two
values of the g r o u n d d a m p i n g factor (~. The d a m p i n g factor of the structure
is fixed at ( = 0.02 at first. Figure 10(a)shows the dimensionless m e a n single

~a .~-0.8

'i
.5

,2 ~~ ~-~°'1'3 2
.1

.05

.02
0 2OO 4O0 6OO 8OO 1000
(a)

8/a ~;g-0,24
1 L '\\

.5 ~\\\\\ ~. 41
~"
1.5
,2 2 5
2O
.1

.05

.02 " R
0 200 400 600 800 1000
(b)
Fig. 10. Dimensionless mean single yield increment t$/aas a function of R for various values
~%/O9o;~ = 0-02; (a) ~s = 0"8; (b) ~g= 0.24.
122 R. Hasenzagl, H. lrschik, F. Ziegler

yield increment in absolute value 6/a dependent on the parameter R.

Maximum values of 5/a are computed for coJco o = 1.3. For cog/coo < 1-3, 5/a
is decreasing. The corresponding results are of less practical importance and
are not plotted. For comparison's sake, Fig. 10(b) gives 6/a for (g = 0"24,
referring to a more peaked shape of the Kanai-Tajimi spectrum. Maximum
values are at cog/coo = 1.1 and decrease faster for increasing ratios cos/coo than
those in Fig. 10(a). Figure 1 l(a,b) shows the nondimensional average rate of
plastic clumps #,/co o. Again (g = 0"8 and 0.24. The spread of #a/coo is much

q-0,o
.040

.030

/~I0,20
.020

.010

, ~ ~ j # . ~ l ~ , ~ , 7 , - , - ~ ,~-,,7..~,-,.-T, ~ ;-.,.;- .~ . . . . . . . . . ~,.,iillJlj I

R
0 200 400 600 800 1000
(a)

•~ -0.24
,OZ,O

~c
.030 I/ 1.5

,020

\"k ~
,010

iii i~11,11 ..... Iiill ......... J tl,lJ . . . . . . . i.., I I

0 200 400 600 800 1000

(b)
Fig. 1 I. N o n d i m e n s i o n a l m e a n rate o f plastic clumps/~a/o~o as a f u n c t i o n o f R for v a r i o u s
ratios ~o,/~ao; ¢ = 0"02; (a) ¢~ = 0'8; (b) ¢, = 0"24.
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 123

~g-O.8

.3

.2 ,,),
\Vf--~Jo"1'3
~\ ~J

\\\\
\\"f,X z

0
~I I I ' n '1 n
~0, 20

I n I I : I
R
20 50 100 200 500 1000
(a)

.~g-0,24
---wg--I1
,3 1.5
'\\ \\ \\ /

.'2 "\\ ,, \\"\ ,, \\V//

/X / ~2 "s

.1 x x ~

R
20 .50 100 200 500 1000
(b)
Fig. 12. Nondimensional r.m.s value axN/ax~ot of accumulated drift as a function of R for
various values t~J~o; ( = 0'02; (a) (g = 0"8; (b) (, = 0.24.

wider at a g r o u n d d a m p i n g o f (, = 0.24. The next two figures (Fig. 12(a,b))

give the 'time independent', n o n d i m e n s i o n a l r.m.s, trxN/ax~ot for the
g r o u n d d a m p i n g values (, = 0.8 a n d 0-24 a n d various ratios o9J09 o as a
function o f R. Figure 13(a,b,c) shows f/a, #a/tOo a n d trxN/ax~ot for a
structural d a m p i n g o f ( = 0"05 a n d a g r o u n d d a m p i n g m e a s u r e o f (~ = 0"8
for various values egg/to o as a function o f R.
F o r the calculation o f the results given in Figs l0 to 13, two slight
 6/a ..~:0,8 5=0.05 ai

.I ~ 1.3

0~I ~ ~
. F ~ ~ , ~ - J _5 20 R- a~3o/So

.06~'a/coo .~',0,8 5=0.05 (b)

2 3

ol ....
0 50 I(30 150 200 250 300 350

°'x~V(avF-~) -~:0,8 5=a05 (c~

.12
=1.3
.10

,06 ~3
.0~ 0
,o2 R-a2(~/So
i J | I i = I a I I

10 20 50 100 200
Fig. 13. Drift statisticsas a function of R and various values ~ojOgo; C = 0"05, C= = 0.8;(a)
Nondimensional mean single yield increment 6/a; (b) Dimensionless inverse of eigentime
between plastic clumps lq/(Oo; (c) Nondimensional r.m.s of accumulated drift axN/a~x/~o t.
 Elasto-plastic oscillators subjected to Kanai-Tajimi spectra 125

improvements have been used with respect to the theory given in Section 2.
The approximation in eqn (8) has been checked by integration:
2
= 2 d~o (36)

numerically by limiting the integration range. Compared to the formulation

in Section 2 the improvement turned out to be hardly noticeable.
Furthermore, a slight increase in accuracy can be achieved by using a
formulation of Ohi and Tanaka ~6 for the energy input:

E{L,} = " SoF(mo)

m ~- (37)

instead of the approximation used on the left hand side ofeqn (26). In case of
a Kanai-Tajimi spectrum the filter function is:

b"(O~o)= og~[aJ,(Ogo( + ~ , ~ ) + 4~o~'~(a)o( , + o9,~)]

x {~,[(o)~ - ~ ) 2 + 409,~o~. ((o9~ + ~o~) + 4~o,09o(~.
, 22 2 + ~2)]}-, (38)

The introduction of a weak material damage is possible. 17

4 CONCLUSION

The main advantage of the theory of effective earthquake loading is the

possibility of calculating the response of elasto-plastic structures by means
of a linear elastic system with constant (initial) stiffness and damping. Only
the loading of the linear system is changed due to the drift. Using similarity
analysis, the characteristic dimensionless inputs are derived and lead to a
convenient graphical representation of the nondimensional quasi-
stationary stochastic response measures. The influence of structural and
loading parameters is studied in detail, where special attention is paid to a
Kanai-Tajimi formulation of the earthquake loading.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Support of the Austrian 'Fonds zur F6rderung der wissenschaftlichen

Forschung' central project S-30/03 in general as well as of the Austrian
Society of Earthquake Engineering (OGE) of H. Irschik is gratefully
acknowledged.
t26 R. Hasenzagl, H. Irschik, F. Ziegler

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