Benefits of Nonlinear Systems

Nonlinear systems have several advantages over elastic systems that make
them the preferred solution for resisting seismic loads. First of all, the issue
of what happens if yielding occurs has already been taken care of in the
design. It is very difficult to keep structural elements from yielding in a large
earthquake, so a structure designed to yield will have much more
predictable, ductile response than one that is designed to remain elastic and
is overloaded.

Limit Forces

Nonlinear systems also limit the forces the structure experiences. A

structural member or protective device exhibits force- displacement
behavior which limits the forces to the ultimate strength of the member or
device, as shown below. The forces in an elastic system, on the other hand,
are limited only by the earthquake forces.

Limit Accelerations

Since nonlinear systems limit forces, by Newton's 2nd law they must also
limit accelerations.

Control Damage Distribution

In addition, nonlinear systems allow the designer to control the damage
distribution. Except for the base-isolated system, the systems shown below
are statically determinate at the near-collapse limit state and thus the forces
in all members and the foundation are known. The designer chooses
locations where local damage is acceptable, and designs the rest of the
structure to be stronger, thus limiting damage to the designated areas.

The Displacement Question

The major difficulty with designing systems to respond nonlinearly is

determining the design displacements. A large part of this course will be
devoted to various ways of estimating expected displacements. Several
ways of doing this are:

• Simple nonlinear spectral displacement estimates

• Estimates based on elastic demands using empirical relationships

• Nonlinear analysis
- static for local deformations
- dynamic for global and residual deformations