• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.173-197
• /
• 2007

A wavelet-based procedure to generate artificial accelerograms compatible with a prescribed seismic design spectrum is described. A procedure to perform a baseline correction of the compatible accelerograms is also described. To examine how the frequency content of the modified records evolves with time, they are analyzed in the time and frequency using the wavelet transform. The changes in the strong motion duration and input energy spectrum are also investigated. An alternative way to match the design spectrum, termed the "two-band matching procedure", is proposed with the objective of preserving the non-stationary characteristics of the original record in the modified accelerogram.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1999.04a
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 1999

In the nonlinear dynamic structural analysis the given ground excitation as an input should be well defined. Because of the lack of recorded accelerograms in Korea it is required to generate an artificial earthquake by a stochastic model of ground excitation with various dynamic properties rather than recorded accelerograms. It is well known that earthquake motions are generally non-stationary with time-varying intensity and frequency content. Many researchers have proposed non-stationary random process models. Yeh and Wen (1990) proposed a non-stationary modulation function and a power spectral density function to describe such non-stationary characteristics. Satio and Wen(1994) proposed a non-stationary stochastic process model to generate earthquake ground motions which are compatible with design reponse spectrum at sites in Japan. this paper shows the process to modify power spectrum compatible with target design response spectrum for generating of nonstationary artificial earthquake ground motions. Target reponse spectrum is chosen by ATC14 to calibrate the response spectrum according to a give recurrence period.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2005.04a
• /
• pp.652-659
• /
• 2005

Even in moderate to low seismic regions like Korean peninsular where wind loading usually governs the structural design of a tall building, the probable structural impact of the design basis earthquake or the maximum credible earthquake on the selected structural system should be considered at least in finalizing the design. In this study, by using response spectrum analysis and linear time history analysis method, seismic performance evaluation was conducted for wind-designed concentrically braced steel highrise buildings. Both spectrum-compatible artificial accelerograms and recorded accelerograms were used as input ground motions for the time history analysis. The analysis results showed that wind-designed concentrically braced steel highrise buildings possess significantly increased elastic seismic capacity due to the system overstrength resulting from the wind-serviceability criterion and the width-to-thickness ratio limits on steel members. Time history analysis results generally tended to underestimate the seismic response as compared to those of response spectrum analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.709-723
• /
• 2007

Considering the vast usage of time-history dynamic analyses to calculate structural responses and lack of sufficient and suitable earthquake records, generation of artificial accelerograms is very necessary. The main target of this paper is to present a novel method based on nonstationary Kanai-Tajimi model and wavelet transform to generate more artificial earthquake records, which are compatible with target spectrum. In this regard, the generalized nonstationary Kanai-Tajimi model to include the nonstationary evaluation of amplitude and dominant frequency of ground motion and properties of wavelet transform is used to generate ground acceleration time history. Application of the method for El Centro 1940 earthquake and two Iranian earthquakes (Tabas 1978 and Manjil 1990) is presented. It is shown that the model and identification algorithms are able to accurately capture the nonstationary features of these earthquake accelerograms. The statistical characteristics of the spectral response of the generated accelerograms are compared with those for the actual records to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. Also, for comparison of the presented method with other methods, the response spectra of the synthetic accelerograms compared with the models of Fan and Ahmadi (1990) and Rofooei et al. (2001) and it is shown that the response spectra of the synthetic accelerograms with the method of this paper are close to those of actual earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.5
• /
• pp.719-747
• /
• 2012

In this paper a novel approach is proposed to address the problem of deriving non-stationary stochastic processes which are compatible in the mean sense with a given (target) response (uniform hazard) spectrum (UHS) as commonly desired in the aseismic structural design regulated by contemporary codes of practice. The appealing feature of the approach is that it is non-iterative and "one-step". This is accomplished by solving a standard over-determined minimization problem in conjunction with appropriate median peak factors. These factors are determined by a plethora of reported new Monte Carlo studies which on their own possess considerable stochastic dynamics merit. In the proposed approach, generation and treatment of samples of the processes individually on a deterministic basis is not required as is the case with the various "two-step" approaches found in the literature addressing the herein considered task. The applicability and usefulness of the approach is demonstrated by furnishing extensive numerical data associated with the elastic design UHS of the current European (EC8) and the Chinese (GB 50011) aseismic code provisions. Purposely, simple and thus attractive from a practical viewpoint, uniformly modulated processes assuming either the Kanai-Tajimi (K-T) or the Clough-Penzien (C-P) spectral form are employed. The Monte Carlo studies yield damping and duration dependent median peak factor spectra, given in a polynomial form, associated with the first passage problem for UHS compatible K-T and C-P uniformly modulated stochastic processes. Hopefully, the herein derived stochastic processes and median peak factor spectra can be used to facilitate the aseismic design of structures regulated by contemporary code provisions in a Monte Carlo simulation-based or stochastic dynamics-based context of analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.3_4
• /
• pp.581-609
• /
• 2012

In this paper a novel non-iterative approach is proposed to address the problem of deriving non-stationary stochastic processes which are compatible in the mean sense with a given (target) response (uniform hazard) spectrum (UHS) as commonly desired in the aseismic structural design regulated by contemporary codes of practice. This is accomplished by solving a standard over-determined minimization problem in conjunction with appropriate median peak factors. These factors are determined by a plethora of reported new Monte Carlo studies which on their own possess considerable stochastic dynamics merit. In the proposed approach, generation and treatment of samples of the processes individually on a deterministic basis is not required as is the case with the various approaches found in the literature addressing the herein considered task. The applicability and usefulness of the approach is demonstrated by furnishing extensive numerical data associated with the elastic design UHS of the current European (EC8) and the Chinese (GB 50011) aseismic code provisions. Purposely, simple and thus attractive from a practical viewpoint, uniformly modulated processes assuming either the Kanai-Tajimi (K-T) or the Clough-Penzien (C-P) spectral form are employed. The Monte Carlo studies yield damping and duration dependent median peak factor spectra, given in a polynomial form, associated with the first passage problem for UHS compatible K-T and C-P uniformly modulated stochastic processes. Hopefully, the herein derived stochastic processes and median peak factor spectra can be used to facilitate the aseismic design of structures regulated by contemporary code provisions in a Monte Carlo simulation-based or stochastic dynamics-based context of analysis.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.25-38
• /
• 2022

The RC private constructions represent a large part of the housing stock in the north part of Algeria. For various reasons, they are mostly built without any seismic considerations and their seismic vulnerability remains unknown for different levels of seismic intensity possible in the region. To support future seismic risk mitigation efforts in northern Algeria, this document assesses the seismic vulnerability of typical private RC constructions built after the Boumerdes earthquake (May 21, 2003) without considering existing seismic regulation, through the development of analytical fragility curves. The fragility curves are developed for four representative RC frames in terms of slight, moderate, extensive, and complete damage states suggested in HAZUS-MH 2.1, using nonlinear time history analyses. The numerical simulation of the nonlinear seismic response of the structures is performed using the SeismoStruct software. An original intensity measure (IM) is proposed and used in this study. It is the zone acceleration coefficient "A", through which the seismic hazard level is represented in the Algerian Seismic Regulations. The efficiency, practicality, and proficiency of the choice of IM are demonstrated. Incremental dynamic analyses are conducted under fifteen ground motion accelerograms compatible with the elastic target spectrum of the Algerian Seismic Regulations. In order to cover all the seismic zones of northern Algeria, the accelerograms are scaled from 0.1 to 2.5 in increments of 0.1. The results mainly indicate that private constructions built after the Boumerdes earthquake in the moderate and high seismic zones with four (04) or more storeys are highly vulnerable.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.185-195
• /
• 2006

Nowadays it is very necessary to generate artificial accelerograms because of lack of adequate earthquake records and vast usage of time-history dynamic analysis to calculate responses of structures. According to the lack of natural records, the best choice is to use proper artificial earthquake records for the specified design zone. These records should be generated in a way that would contain seismic properties of a vast area and therefore could be applied as design records. The main objective of this paper is to present a new method based on wavelet theory to generate more artificial earthquake records, which are compatible with target spectrum. Wavelets are able to decompose time series to several levels that each level covers a specific range of frequencies. If an accelerogram is transformed by Fourier transform to frequency domain, then wavelets are considered as a transform in time-scale domain which frequency has been changed to scale in the recent domain. Since wavelet theory separates each signal, it is able to generate so many artificial records having the same target spectrum.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.69 no.3
• /
• pp.293-306
• /
• 2019

In current seismic design codes, various elastic design acceleration spectra are defined considering different seismological and soil characteristics and are widely used tool for calculation of seismic loads acting on structures. Response spectrum analyses directly use the elastic design acceleration spectra whereas time history analyses use acceleration records of earthquakes whose acceleration spectra fit the design spectra of seismic codes. Due to the fact that obtaining coherent structural response quantities with the seismic design code considerations is a desired circumstance in dynamic analyses, the response spectra of earthquake records used in time history analyses had better fit to the design acceleration spectra of seismic codes. This paper evaluates structural response distributions of multi-story reinforced concrete frames obtained from nonlinear time history analyses which are performed by using the scaled earthquake records compatible with various elastic design spectra. Time domain scaling procedure is used while processing the response spectrum of real accelerograms to fit the design acceleration spectra. The elastic acceleration design spectra of Turkish Seismic Design Code 2007, Uniform Building Code 1997 and Eurocode 8 are considered as target spectra in the scaling procedure. Soil classes in different seismic codes are appropriately matched up with each other according to $V_{S30}$ values. The maximum roof displacements and the total base shears of considered frame structures are determined from nonlinear time history analyses using the scaled earthquake records and the results are presented by graphs and tables. Coherent structural response quantities reflecting the influence of elastic design spectra of various seismic codes are obtained.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.53-83
• /
• 2008

A rational and efficient seismic design methodology for irregular space steel frames using advanced methods of analysis in the framework of Eurocodes 8 and 3 is presented. This design methodology employs an advanced static or dynamic finite element method of analysis that takes into account geometrical and material non-linearities and member and frame imperfections. The inelastic static analysis (pushover) is employed with multimodal load along the height of the building combining the first few modes. The inelastic dynamic method in the time domain is employed with accelerograms taken from real earthquakes scaled so as to be compatible with the elastic design spectrum of Eurocode 8. The design procedure starts with assumed member sections, continues with the checking of the damage and ultimate limit states requirements, the serviceability requirements and ends with the adjustment of member sizes. Thus it can sufficiently capture the limit states of displacements, rotations, strength, stability and damage of the structure and its individual members so that separate member capacity checks through the interaction equations of Eurocode 3 or the usage of the conservative and crude q-factor suggested in Eurocode 8 are not required. Two numerical examples dealing with the seismic design of irregular space steel moment resisting frames are presented to illustrate the proposed method and demonstrate its advantages. The first considers a seven storey geometrically regular frame with in-plan eccentricities, while the second a six storey frame with a setback.