Istanbul Technical University

Civil Engineering Department

DEP 613 Homework Assignment 4

Dr. Bar Erku

Preliminary Design of Base Isolation Systems

Consider a SDOF system with a bilinear stiffness and zero damping. Assume that a design
spectra is given for a site for 5% damping in a text format (e.g. first column is periods and
second column is pseudo accelerations in terms of g). You will need to write a Matlab script
to read the response spectra file and convert the data to a matrix variable, e.g. an N 2
matrix, where the first column will be the periods and the second column will be the pseudo
accelerations.
Design Spectrum, = 5%

SA (g)

ag

a. Write a Matlab function that takes (i) a period, (ii) an equivalent damping and
(iii) the response spectra as inputs and gives the corresponding pseudo acceleration as
output. Response spectra should be a matrix variable. To find the pseudo acceleration
values for a damping other than a 5% damping, you can use the following formula:

SA,

SA,5%
,
=
B

B=

0.05

!0.3

where SA, is the pseudo acceleration for the given damping ratio, SA,5% is the pseudo acceleration for 5% damping ratio, and B is the damping reduction factor.
b. Write a Matlab function that takes (i) the properties of the bilinear hysteresis (primary stiffness, secondary stiffness and yield displacement or yield force) and (ii) a given
displacement as inputs and gives the equivalent viscous damping ratio that corresponds
to the given displacement as output.
c. Write a Matlab script that estimates the displacement of the bilinear system under
a seismic action defined by the given spectra. This requires to implement an iterative
algorithm, which cruedly does the following:
For the first iteration, it makes an assumption on the effective period of the
SDOF system, which can be Teff = T1 /(2 3), where T1 is a period estimated
using the primary stiffness of the system.
1

DEP 613 Homework Assignment 4

Dr. Erku

For the first iteration, it makes an assumption on the equivalent damping of the
SDOF system, which can be equiv = 20%.
For the given effective period and equivalent damping, it estimates the psuedoacceleration from the given response spectra.
It estimates the displacement from the pseudo acceleration.
It estimates new effective period and new equivalent damping from the new
displacement.
Continues the iteration till a convergance criteria is satisfied.
The program should give the final displacement, pseudo acceleration, effective stiffness, equivalent damping and corresponding spring force as output. Also it should
plot the following:
Bilinear backbone curve with the displacements and effective stiffness estimated during
the iteration process on a single plot.
Original and derived response spectra with the periods and pseudo acceleration pairs
estimated during the iteration process on a single plot.
For a verification example, you can use the following data:
Property
Preliminary Stiffness
Secondary Stiffness
Yield Force
Mass
Response Spectra

Value
690000 kN/m
69000 kN/m
40000 kN
30000 tons
Given as Text

Verification with Nonlinear Analysis

Consider the fault-normal and fault parallel components of the ground motion data of Kobe
Earthquake given to you in Homework Assignment 2. We would like to verify the results of
Question 1 through a nonlinear time-history analysis. For that purpose, first, we need to scale
the ground acceleration data up (or below) to a level that is compatible with the design spectra
given in Question 1. Then, we can conduct a nonlinear analyses and compare the results of
these analyses with the results you obtained in Question 1.
a. For both of the acceleration data, find a scale factor such that pseudo acceleration
spectrum of the acceleration data will be compatible with the design spectra given in
Question 1 when multiplied with the scale factor. One way of doing this is simply to
compare the pseudo acceleration of the design spectra with the pseudo acceleration
of the ground acceleration at the effective period of the structure obtained in the
preliminary design of the base isolation system. Then, a scale factor can be found only
to make these two values equal to each other. This is briefly explained in the following
figure.

DEP 613 Homework Assignment 4

Dr. Erku

DS: Design Spectrum

OGA: Original Ground Acceleration
SGA: Scaled Ground Acceleration

Design Spectrum

SA (g)

DS
SGA
SA,T
= SA,T
eff
eff
OGA
SA,T
eff

Scaled Ground Acceleration

Original Ground Acceleration
T

Teff

According to this figure, a scaled ground acceleration can be obtained such that
DS
SA,T
eff
Scale Factor, = OGA
,
SA,Teff

(t),
(t) = aOGA
aSGA
g
g

SASGA (T ) = SAOGA (T )

b. After finding the scale factors for both ground acceleration data, conduct nonlinear
analyses for the bilinear element properties given in Question 1 and for the scaled
ground acceleration histories. Provide bilinear hysteresis plots.
c. Compare the maximum displacements obtained from the preliminary design and the
nonlinear time history analyses for both ground acceleration data. Comment on your
findings.

Reading Assignment: Damping Reduction Factors

A paper (Bommer and Mendis, 2005) has been posted along with this homework. Please read
this paper and be ready for a quiz on this paper.
Due: 14 November 2016, 5:00 pm. Homework submitted after 5:00 pm will not be collected.