Khwopa Engineering College

Bhaktapur 2, Libali

NONLINEAR ANALYSIS

Types of accelerograms
1) Recorded acceleragrams
2) Artificial accelerograms
3) Synthetic accelerograms

1.) Recorded Accelerograms

Recorded Accelerograms
Genuine records of shaking produced by

earthquakes. Therefore, they carry all the ground

motion characteristics (amplitude, frequency and
energy content, duration and phasse characteristics).
They reflect all the factors influencing accelerograms
(characteristics of the source, path, site).

Real Accelerograms
The real difficulty in using real accelegroms is to select

records whose characteristics are as similar as possible to

those of the expected earthquake, defined by a target
scenario.
Difficult to select correctly to identity the most important
parameters that characterize the conditions under which
an earthquake is produced. The parameters are:
Source:
(magnitude, rupture mechanism, directivity and
focal
depth)
Path: distance and azimuth:
Site:
surface geology and topography
It is possible to select records within ranges of magnitude and distance
from the design event to increase the possibility of finding a valid
record set.

The UBC 1997, IBC 2000 and the EC8 specify that if

only three records are used in the analyses, the

maximum structural response must be used, whereas
if seven or more are used, the average response may
be used.

2.) Artificial accelerograms

Accelerograms can be generated mathematically

through random vibration theory.

Goal: develop a signal having a response spectrum that
matches a target response spectrum with a predefined
accuracy.
However, even when the artificial accelerograms are
almost completely compatible with the elastic design
spectrum, they show an excessive number of cycles and
unrealistically high energy content.
Difficult to match the response spectrum with to real
earthquake response spectrum.

3.) Synthetic accelerograms

Complex mathematical formulation to generate signals, following

the seismic waves from the source to the site. The signal are able to
represent source, path and response of the site.
These signals represent eaqrthquake frequencies, near source
effects, various focal mechanisms, fault slip velocity and
displacement, directivity crustal propagation, soil and topography.
These types of accelerograms are especially useful for some
engineering applications where it is necessary to assess the future
ground shaking often outside the range of parameters for which
recorded data are now available.
To generate synthetic accelerograms there is a need for a definition
of a specific earthquake scenario in terms of magnitude, rupture
mechanism, geological conditions and location of the site.

Scaling of Accelerograms
1) amplitude scaling
PGA scaling
Stripe scaling to match Sa(T1)
3) Response spectrum Matching

a) matching to average spectrum to the target spectrum

b) matching individual spectrum to the target spectrum