Kathmandu, Nepal International Seminar on

November 29-30, 2009 Hazard Management for Sustainable Development

VERTICAL GROUND MOTIONS AND ITS EFFECT ON

ENGINEERING STRUCTURES: A STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW
Bipin SHRESTHA

ABSTRACT

During the recent earthquakes, the vertical component of the ground motion found to be
exceeding the horizontal component, which directly contradicts the current codal
provision that assumes the value of the vertical ground motion to be 1/2 to 2/3 of the
horizontal component. Almost after every destructive earthquake engineers postulates that
the structural damage such as elephant foot buckling of large column, fracture of large
diameter reinforced concrete column supporting building and freeway structures was due
to strong vertical ground motion. Therefore, seismic design of the structure without the
consideration of the vertical ground motion component may result in unquantifiable risk
from the collapse, especially those constructed in the close proximity of the fault. However
there seems to be no consensus as to the importance on damage due to vertical motions,
and little that has been learned from the recent earthquake in Loma-Prieta, Northridge, or
Kobe which indicates conclusively that damage to structures was predominantly by
vertical motions. This paper presents the assemblage of the state-of-the-art study on the
vertical ground motion and its effects on the engineering structures.

Keywords: vertical ground motion, Spectral ratio, Fourier spectra, vertical response
period, shear response

1. INTRODUCTION

It is a well Known fact that the civil engineering structures are subjected to the three
dimensional earthquake ground motions. But it is only the horizontal motion which has
been extensively studied and considered in the design Process whereas the vertical
component of the ground motion has generally been neglected in design and hardly
studied from hazard point of view. Also most of the Prevailing building codes including
NBC 105, IS 1893, UBC 97 and many other codes worldwide assume the vertical
component of the ground motion to be ½ to ! of the horizontal component. However, in
recent destructive earthquakes such as the 1989 Loma Prieta, 1994 Northridge, 1995 Kobe
and 1999 Chi-Chi, it was found that vertical ground motion may equal or even
signiÞcantly exceed the local horizontal ground motion. In such situations, most existing
code speciÞcations must be considered un-conservative.

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In recent years many authors has highlighted this fact and done significant researches to
identify and quantify the damaging potential of the vertical component of ground motion.
Many studies reported data showing that the vertical peak acceleration may be even higher
than the horizontal value. Others have attributed the observed failure on the Reinforced
concrete structures to the reduction of shear strength caused by vertical ground motion
effects. As recently shown by Kunnath et al. (2008), vertical motion may magnify and
potentially create reversal of bending moment in longitudinal bridge girders. Widespread
phenomenon of bearing failure and deck unseating, as observed during the recent
earthquakes, was partially attributed to the destructive impact of vertical motions.
However effects on vertical acceleration on response of the long span cable stayed bridge
and its steel tower was found to be slight (Shrestha, 2009; Abdel raheem, Hayashikawa
and Aly, 2002). Based on a large body of available studies, it is possible to conclude that
vertical shaking may escalate the axial column force, cause an increase in the moment and
shear demand, and amplify plastic deformation, extend plastic hinge formation and finally
diminish the ductility capacity of structural component. In order to include the vertical
motion effects in design, recent efforts have considered the development of vertical ground
motion spectra by focusing mostly on near-fault accelerograms (e.g.;Elnashai and
Papazoglou, 1997; Bozorgnia and Campbell, 2004; Kalkan and Gülkan, 2004). These
studies have developed vertical ground motion spectra and concentrated on its parallel use
with the horizontal ground motion spectra. In some existing building codes, Eurocode 8
for example, much more attention is given to the uncertainties of the spectrum ratio in the
near-fault zone.

2. VERTICAL COMPONENT OF GROUND MOTION AND V/H RATIO

A common perception among the Professional engineer is that the vertical component of
the ground motion is lower than the horizontal component, thereby V/H ratio (ratio of
vertical to horizontal peak ground acceleration) is assumed to remain less than the unity.
Many codes suggest scaling of a single spectral shape, originally derived for the horizontal
component using an average V/H ratio of 2/3 as originally proposed by Newmark et al.
(1973). As a result, all components of motion have the same frequency content in almost
all design codes. The frequency content, however, is demonstrably different (figure 2).
Also, the 2/3 rule for V/H is unconservative in the near-field and over-conservative at
large epicentral distances. Table- shows some of the landmark earthquakes with significant
V/H ratio. The V/H ratio was confirmed to be > 1.0 within a 5 km radius of earthquake
source, > 2/3 within 25 km radius and dependent on earthquake magnitude from studies by
Collier and Elnashai(2001).

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Event Station(Mw) Hor1(g) Hor2(g) Ver(g) V/H

Gazli, Uzbeksitan 1976 Karakyr(6.8) 0.71 0.63 1.34 1.89
Imperial valley, USA 1979 El cenro array 6 (6.5) 0.41 0.44 1.66 3.77
Nahhani, Canada 1985 Site1(6.8) 0.98 1.10 2.09 1.90
Morgan hill, USA 1984 Gilroy array#7(6.2) 0.11 0.19 0.43 2.25
Loma-prieta, USA 1989 LGPC(6.9) 0.56 0.61 0.89 1.47
Northridge, USA 1994 Arleta fire station(6.7) 0.34 0.31 0.55 1.61
Kobe, Japan 1995 Port Island (6.9) 0.31 0.28 0.56 1.79
Chi Chi, Taiwan 1999 TCU 076 (6.3) 0.11 0.12 0.26 2.07
Table 1 Ground motion database

3. FREQUENCY CONTENT

The vertical component of the ground motion is associated with vertically propagating the
P-waves, whereas the horizontal components are is more associated with S-waves. The
wave-length of P- waves are shorter than the S-wave, i.e. frequency content of the vertical
component of the ground motion is higher than the horizontal component. The figure 1
show horizontal and vertical component of the most frequently quoted ground motion of
1940 el-centro earthquake. Figure shows Fourier spectra, acceleration response spectrum
and Arias intensity curve. This figure confirms the higher frequency content of the vertical
component of the ground motion thus result in higher ratio of vertical to horizontal spectral
acceleration at the short period range. Although the content over the frequency range of the
vertical ground motion is lower than that of the horizontal component, it has tendency to
concentrate all its energy in narrow high frequency band. Therefore such high frequency
content leads to largest response in short period range, which often coincides with the
vertical period of the RC structure, thus causing significant response amplification.

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0.3
0.2
Acceleration [g]

0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time [sec]

0.3
0.2
Acceleration [g]

0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time [sec]

Fig 1 Ground motion timehistory of El-centro 1940 vertical(0.21g) and

horizontal(0.32g) respectively from top

Fig 2 Comparison of Fourier spectra and Arias intensity of vertical and

horizontal ground motion

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Fig 3 Response spectrum and comparison of spectral ratio at short

period for El-centro with code value

4. TIME LAG BETWEEN PEAK VERTICAL AND PEAK HORIZONTAL MOTION

One of the important features of the ground motion is the relationship between the arrival
times of peak vertical motion with the peak horizontal motion. In general peak vertical
ground motion occurs earlier than peak horizontal motion as shown in figure 1 (Peak
vertical acceleration occurs 1 sec earlier than the peak horizontal ground motion), whereas
in other cases the near coincidence occurs in the time domain. In case of peak vertical
motion occurring significantly before the peak horizontal motion, then it may be valid to
design the structure separately for the effects of vertical and horizontal ground motion but
when these two components are nearly coinciding then the consideration of combined
effect in the design in necessary. Elnashai and Collier (2001) investigated the time interval
by using records from Imperial Valley (1979) and Morgan Hill (1984) earthquakes. They
considered 32 records at various distance with similar site conditions. The study concluded
that the time interval increases with distance from source and should be taken as zero for a
distance of 5 km from the source. However the wide variety of ground motion exhibit
diverse result thus concluding the local site effect, travel path and source depth as other
significant contributors to the arrival time of peak of two components.

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Fig.4. Minimum time interval between peak vertical and horizontal accelerations plotted as
a function of magnitude and distance for the 1979 imperial valley earthquake (Mw = 6.5)
and the 1984 Morgan Hill earthquake ( Mw = 6.3)

5. VERTICAL RESPONSE PERIOD

It is quite clear from the figure 3 that the vertical to horizontal spectral ratio significantly exceeds
the code recommended one at initial period (in the case of El-centro ground motion it was for
0.05- 0.15 seconds) and codal provision is too conservative for the later periods. Then the
question in the mind will be, does this higher spectral ratio at initial period of the response spectra
will have any effect on structure? Yes, it does. The period of the RC building does lies within this
effective range (0.05sec-0.15sec) according to finding from Papadopoulou (1989).
Number ofHorizontal Vertical
floors period (s) period (s)
1 0.1 0.040
2 0..2 0.064
3 0.3 0.082
4 0.4 0.091
5 05 0.099
6 0.6 0.106
7 0.7 0.114
8 0.8 0.120

Table 2: Fundamental natural period of RC building (Papadopoulou)

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His finding suggest that the natural period of the RC structure lies within the constant
amplification range for vertical strong-motion records which was found to lie between periods of
0.05 s and 0.15 s . This with the confirmed severity of near-field vertical strong-motion in terms
of peak ground acceleration suggests that large dynamic axial forces, acting both upwards and
downwards, should be expected in the near-field. Kim and Elanshai (2008) performed the
parametric study on RC bridges (2spans and single pier) with different geometric configuration.
Fundamental period of the bridge was calculated are listed on table 2, which again clearly
indicates for most of the cases the fundamental period of vibration is near about 0.15sec.

Figure 5. Layout of Simple bridge(Kim and Elnashai)

Table 3: Geometric configuration and fundamental period of the bridges (Kim and Elnashai)

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It is stressed again that the most worrying aspect of vertical response is the
correspondence of building frame and short span bridge periods with the
predominant periods of vertical strong-motion records. This correspondence of
fundamental period of the structure with the Predominant periods of vertical strong
ground motion leads to the significant amplification of forces particularly on vertical
load carrying members.

7. EFFECT ON BUILDING STRUCTURES

The major effect of the vertical ground motion on the building is to increase the axial
demand on the vertical load carrying member. It is observed that the axial force caused by
the vertical motion, having comparable amplitude to the horizontal motion, are larger than
the corresponding transverse loading only in most of the cases. This pattern is significant
for upper floor rather than for lower floors. Nonlinear dynamic analysis of an 8-storey, 3-
bay moment resisting RC frame designed according to UBC, has lead to the confirmation
of the occurrence of net tensile forces and displacements, thus dispelling the question of
high frequency excitation often used to support the insignificance of the vertical
component(Koukleri). The results for the Imperial Valley Centro-6 motion are shown in
Table 4.

!
Table 4 Effect of vertical motion on column compressive forces for a RC frame (Koulkeri)

It is a well known fact that the shear capacity of the column depends upon the axial
demand. An increase in the axial force demand in the column such as the one
imposed by the vertical components with significant amplitude results in an increase
in the shear capacity of the column. This is beneficial to the seismic behavior of the

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column. However, a decrease in the axial force demand on the column results in a
decrease in the shear capacity of the column. Vertical ground motion can put a
column into tension for short durations of time, thus reducing the column’s shear
capacity to just the shear strength of the transverse reinforcement. This may lead to
the failure of the structure.

Figure 6 Effect of vertical motion on shear response of RC columns. Shear capacity Vs

demand time history of critical 7th storey column of dual frame at attainment of 3 percent
inter-storey drift ot ground motion of 1971 San Fernando (Georgantzis)

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Similar results were also observed for steel frame buildings during study undertaken
by Broderick et al. following the report of damaged steel building during Northridge
earthquake. Although vertical ground motion didn’t significantly influenced the
transverse response of the building, significant increase in column rotational ductility
demand was found and attributed to occurrence of lower yield point. Beams of the
steel frames were found to be more affected by the vertical motion. Problem was
more concentrated particularly at the connections where the amplitude of the
obtained vibrations was such as to imply the imposition of a large number of cycles
close to and exceeding yield. More than 100 cycles were counted in certain cases,
enough for low-cycle fatigue to become significant and cyclic deterioration to occur
in typical connection elements. Such response only takes place if the vertical
component is included in the analysis.

8. EFFECT ON BRIDGE STRUCTURE

One of the early studies on the effect of vertical component of the ground motion
was carried out by saadeghvaziri and Foutch (1991), whom reported the variation
on the axial force due to the vertical motion, reduced the energy dissipation
capacity of the bridge column and also affected the shear capacity of the column.
This finding was further supported by the Papazoglou and Elanshai (1996) on their
paper which included both the field evidence and the damaging effect of the
vertical motion on the building and highway structure as well. Recently, Kunnath
et al. (2008a) examined a two-span highway bridge with double-column bent
considering six different structural configurations. They found that the vertical
component of ground motion causes significant amplification in the axial force
demand in the columns and moment demands in the girder at both the mid-span and
at the face of the bent cap. The increase in girder moment due to vertical motion
caused the demand to exceed the capacity, hence failure would be expected.

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Fig 7 Time history response of selected parameter under

horizontal and combined horizontal and vertical ground motion (Kunnath, Abrahamson,
Chai, Erduran and Yilmaz 2008)

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9. CONCLUDING REMARK

This paper is meant to disseminate the state-of-the-art works on the importance of vertical
ground motion to the Nepali audience. The author particularly likes to raise these concerns
at moment when National building code of the Nepal is in the verge of revision. From the
collection of works worldwide, it is concluded that neglecting vertical component of the
ground motion may lead to serious underestimation of the demand, over-estimation of the
capacity and thus jeopardize overall structural safety.

At this sensitive period of transition the author from his capacity, as a keen student of the
vertical motion and its effects on the structure likes to make few recommendations to the
reviewer of the codes. The present codal provision on the vertical components of ground
motion is not conservative and often this codal provision itself in not implemented during
the design and analysis of earthquake resistant structure. Hence the author highly
recommends the reviewer of the code to go through Eurocode-8, which has most
satisfactory dealt the vertical spectrum among the prevailing seismic codes. Also the
author would like to highlight to fact that present design synthesis could lead to the
catastrophic consequences. It is highly recommended that the sites located within 20 Km
from the major active fault should be designed to the combined effect of horizontal and
vertical ground motion.

REFERENCES

Kim, S.J. and Elnashai, A.S., (2008). “Seismic assessment of RC structure considering
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