Basic of Earthquake Loading on Structure

According to theory of plate tectonics, a constant motion of earths crust produces

collisions between floating plates. In this colliding boundary, the movement is temporary
prevented by frictional resistance.
The stresses built up in this way are released when sudden slippage is occurred under
elastic rebound; sometimes rock may get fractured. The strain energy released in this way
may produce fractures in the upper crust and in certain direction fault may occur.

Some fraction of energy (as shockwave) is propagated in all directions. The wave motion
stated above is called earthquake. It was found that the faults that was formed due to past
earthquakes are vulnerable to suffer future disturbance. Now we will learn some information
about recording of earthquake data.
Within United States monitoring grids were created across seismic active regions by
installing stations equipped with automatic sensing equipment like tiltmeters and
seismographs. The equipment can record seismic ground motion which facilitates us to

locate focus and epicenter of earthquake. They also can record point of highest intensity of
seismic wave.
An interesting matter is that, these peak intensities are found at or near epicenter and in
most cases found around nearby fault. Now as structural engineer we need that portion of
motions that are affect structures. A strong motion accelerograph can record such
intensities of the ground movement.
This can record components of ground motion (acceleration) in three direction, two in
horizontal and on in vertical direction i.e. North-South, East-West and vertical as usual. The
acceleration is expressed as a percentage of gravity G.
Depending on seismic data collected in this way, structural design is done. The objective is
to design a building that can survive earthquake loading without collapse but not to make
earthquake proof building. According to uniform building code probability of earthquake
hazard of any region is calculated.
Seismic ground motion propagates through earth crust and contact point between
structures and earth is foundation, so ground motion acts on structure by moving
foundation back-forth. Inertia forces generated by mass structure resist earthquake motion
throughout whole structure. Lateral inertial on person traveling in a vehicle under
deceleration is the similar example of this phenomenon. Inertia forces in vertical direction
are often ignored as structure is designed for static vertical load.

What is Response Spectrum in Earthquake Analysis?

We know earthquake forces shake building foundation back-forth which is finally resisted
by inertia forces produced throughout a structure. The vertical inertia forces are ignored as
buildings are usually designed for vertical static loading. Vertical forces may critical when
building is located very close to point of fault rupture.
So we will consider lateral forces here. Horizontal inertial forces depends on
-Building mass
-Ground acceleration
-Nature/type of structure

Now the ground acceleration transmitted to structure through foundation. But does full
ground acceleration is passed through foundation? Actually the both acceleration are never
found same, as building structure is not rigid i.e. the structure and its foundation are not
rigid. If the rigidity criteria is satisfied both would have same acceleration i.e. Newtons Law
(F=M X A) is Valid.
Where
F=Horizontal inertia force
M=Mass of building
A=Ground acceleration.

All structures have flexibility to some extent. When a structure suffers less deformation (i.e.
it absorb some energy), the inertia force would be less than MXA (product of mass and
ground acceleration).
When a structure is very flexible (has natural period/frequency near ground waves), it would
be subjected to more force than MA under repeated ground motions.
Thus we have learnt that lateral force acting on a structure not only depend on acceleration
of ground motion but also type of building structure i.e. response of the building and
foundation too.
The relationship between structure and ground acceleration is expressed as response
spectrum. To understand response spectrum let us consider oscillators of different periods.
Oscillators of cantilever pendulums of different heights are taken which are mounted from a
base that can be shaken back-forth (cyclic motion) to simulate seismic waves recorded in
previous earthquakes (probable earthquake to be happened).
Here buildings are represented by these oscillators. For simplification single degree of
freedom is considered and various periods represent for different structural type. Under
cyclic motion maximum response Vs natural period of vibration is plotted as shown in above
figure.
Maximum response under oscillation can be represented as a function of
-Acceleration
-Velocity
-Deflection
-Force action
Again every structural system contains inherently its damping mechanisms. This damping
obviously reduce large amount of response especially when repetitive motion continues.
Now we made an assumption to consider actual building as oscillator. The response curve
found in this way can be applied depending on how nearly behavior of these simple
oscillators represents complex behavior of a building.
The response spectrum is the simple way to determine maximum response under seismic
ground motion. The uniform building code provides us to use seismic co-efficient that
responds nearly in shape to response spectra produced from some/probable earthquake and
also reflects the consideration of having longer period of taller building (as taller pendulum)
and shorter period for short building. Thus shorter and stiffer building will be subjected to
greater inertia forces than taller building.