EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING: LAB – WS – PR

3. LABORATORY 3

3.3 Execute a time history analysis of the frame under seismic excitation (the one already
assigned to yours group)
A MDOF system can be solved as several decoupled SDOF in the modal coordinates 𝑝𝑠 (𝑡):
𝑡
𝑝𝑠 (𝑡) = ∫ 𝑎𝑠 (𝜏) ∙ ℎ𝑠 (𝑡 − 𝜏)𝑑𝜏 = ℎ𝑠 (𝑡) ∗ 𝑎𝑠 (𝑡) (6)
0

Where s goes from 1 to the number of modes of the system. ℎ𝑠 (𝑡) is the IRF of the s-th mode:

1
ℎ𝑠 (𝑡) = ∙ 𝑒 −𝜁𝜔𝑛,𝑠 𝑡 ∙ sin(𝜔𝑑,𝑠 𝑡) (7)
𝜔𝑑,𝑠

that is evaluated for any natural pulsation of the system. 𝑎𝑠 (𝑡) instead is the input function:

𝑎𝑠 (𝑡) = −𝛤𝑠 ∙ 𝑎𝑔 (𝑡) (8)

where 𝑎𝑔 (𝑡) represent the accelerations’ earthquake time-history at the ground and 𝛤𝑠 is the participation factor
for the mode s. Writing in matrix form, the participation factor is a column vector having a number of rows
equal to the number of modes of the system ad it is defined as follow:

{𝛤} = [𝑈][𝑀]{𝑑} (9)

Where [U] is the normalised eigenvector matrix, [M] is the mass matrix and {d} is a drag vector, a unitary
column vector with a number of row equal to the number of DOFs of the system. For example, for a 3-DOFs
system {d} will be:
1
{𝑑} = {1}
1

Following the matrix form, the solution of the system in terms of geometric displacement is obtained with:

{𝑢(𝑡)} = [𝑈]{𝑝(𝑡)} (10)

where
 𝑢1 (𝑡) 𝑝1 (𝑡)
𝑢2 (𝑡) 𝑝2 (𝑡)
{𝑢(𝑡)} = 𝑢3 (𝑡) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 {𝑝(𝑡)} = 𝑝3 (𝑡)
: :
𝑢𝑟 (𝑡) 𝑝𝑠 (𝑡)
{ : } { : }

Having the displacement response of the system it is now possible to calculate the forces, 𝐹𝑟 (𝑡), on the r-th
DOF:

{𝐹(𝑡)} = [𝐾]{𝑢(𝑡)} (11)

With:

𝐹1 (𝑡)
𝐹2 (𝑡)
{𝐹(𝑡)} = 𝐹3 (𝑡)
:
𝐹𝑟 (𝑡)
{ : }

The shear at the base, V(t), is the sum of the force acting o each DOF:

𝑉(𝑡) = ∑ 𝐹𝑟 (𝑡) (12)

Calculate the maximum absolute displacement at each floor and the maximum absolute shear at the base of
the building. Then plot all the modal coordinates, 𝑝𝑠 (𝑡), and all the geometric displacement 𝑢𝑟 (𝑡). What is
the meaning of the modal participation factor, 𝛤𝑠 ?

MATLAB help:
1) Use d = diag(eye(num_DOFs)); to build the drag vector d. Then you can apply Equation (9) to find
the participation factor vector gamma;
2) Solve Equation (6), (7) and (8) in a loop “for”.
3) Solve Equation (10), (11) and (12) after the previous defined loop “for”.

3.4 Solve the problem using the modal analysis with response spectrum. In this case you
must use the response spectrum obtained in exercise 2
Sometimes is not possible to obtain the time-history displacement response of a system because the input
earthquake is unknown. In this case it is possible to use the response spectra defined in some way. In this
exercise you suppose to know the response spectrum in displacement D(T). This is the response spectrum that
you found in LABORATORY 2.
Because D(T) is known it is possible to obtain the values of the spectral displacement, Ds for each natural
period of the system, Ts. Remember that:

2𝜋
𝑇𝑠 = (13)
𝜔𝑛,𝑠

Thus is easy to obtain the vector of the spectral displacement, {𝐷}:

𝐷1
𝐷2
{𝐷} = 𝐷3
:
𝐷𝑠
{ : }
Because no information for each time step is provided, with the modal analysis with response spectrum we can
only estimate the maximum values of the modal coordinates, that are equal to:

𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑠 = 𝛤𝑠 ∙ 𝐷𝑠 (14)

Where 𝛤𝑠 is a row of the vector defined in Equation (9). Now it is possible to calculate the maximum geometric
displacements for each mode.
You cannot directly evaluate the maximum absolute geometric displacements of the analysed MDOF system
because in the response spectrum analysis, 𝐷𝑠 represents the maximum absolute geometric displacement that
a DOF system exhibit in the time, for a specific mode. Thus, there is no correspondence in the time between
two different spectral displacement 𝐷𝑖 and 𝐷𝑗 .

The maximum absolute geometric displacements for each modes, {𝑢}𝑠 , are given by:

𝑢1𝑠 𝑈1𝑠
𝑢2𝑠 𝑈2𝑠
𝑢3𝑠 𝑈3𝑠
{𝑢}𝑠 = = 𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑠 = {𝑈}𝑠 𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑠 (15)
: :
𝑢𝑟𝑠 𝑈𝑟𝑠
{ : }𝑠 { : }𝑠

[𝑢] = [{𝑢}1 , {𝑢}2 , … , {𝑢}𝑠 , … ] (16)

where {𝑈}𝑠 is the column vector of the matrix [U] that define the eigenvector of the mode s. At the same time
it is possible to calculate the maximum absolute forces for each modes {𝐹}𝑠 :

𝐹1𝑠 𝑈1𝑠
𝐹2𝑠 𝑈2𝑠
{𝐹}𝑠 = 𝐹3𝑠 = [𝐾] 𝑈3𝑠 𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑠 = [𝐾]{𝑈}𝑠 𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥,𝑠 (17)
: :
𝐹𝑟𝑠 𝑈𝑟𝑠
{ : }𝑠 { : }𝑠
And the maximum shear at the base for each modes is just the sum of the forces evaluated in each DOF:

𝑉𝑠 = ∑ 𝐹𝑟𝑠 (18)
𝑟

{𝑉} = {𝑉1 , 𝑉2 , … , 𝑉𝑠 , … } (19)

Because there is no correspondence in the time between the values obtained for two different modes we now
need to combine them with some statistical tool.

COMBINATION CQC >> SEE NTC2018 sec. 7.3.3.1

Plot the input response spectrum D(T), then calculate the maximum absolute displacement at each floor and
the maximum absolute shear at the base of the building. Compare the results with those one obtained with the
time history analysis.