The analysis of site-dependent effects on the inelastic response of structural systems subjected to seismic loading

The response of structural systems to earthquake ground motion at a particular site is random, due in part to the variability of the excitation. For design purposes, it is desirable to obtain probabilistic descriptions of the response. However, the response is inelastic, so that linear random vibration methods cannot be implemented directly. The development of probabilistic ground motion models also is difficult, due to the nonstationary character of seismic shaking. The work presented herein examines probabilistic models of ground motion which attempt to account for site-specific characteristics. Equivalent linearization techniques are developed for the analysis of inelastic response to earthquake ground motion, facilitating the implementation of random vibration techniques. The results from random vibration analyses are compared to those from simulation, and the effects of nonstationarity in the excitation on the statistics of inelastic response are examined.