EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

Earthquake Engng Struct. Dyn. 2006; 35:1051–1052

Published online 14 February 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/eqe.566

DISCUSSION OF PAPER

A mathematical basis for the convergence of the capacity

spectrum method by Y. Y. Lin et al., Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics
2004; 33(9):1059–1066

Dixiong Yang∗; † and Gang Li

State Key Laboratory for Structural Analysis of Industrial Equipment; Department of Engineering Mechanics;
Dalian University of Technology; Dalian 116023; China

The above-referenced paper established an iterative procedure of simpli
ed capacity spectrum

method (CSM) in ATC-40, and applied the
xed point concept to analyse the reason of con-
vergent failure of iteration scheme derived from the equivalent linearization of inelastic SDOF
system in the CSM. Nevertheless, the analysis only limited to the convergent and divergent
solution, but neglected the periodic oscillation of solution in the other references. Furthermore,
the identi
ed criterion for the convergence of iterative map was used inappropriately.
In fact, according to the analysis procedure of CSM suggested in the referenced paper, for
the elasto-plastic SDOF system with Tn = 1:0 s, the displacement demand (D) for damping
ratios other than 5% can be written as an iterative procedure, which can be expressed as an
nonlinearly iterative map, namely, a discretely dynamical system

   
2 Dy
2:31 − 0:41 ln 0:05 + 1− × 100
T n Di
Di
Di+1 = 2 1:8g (1)
4
Dy 1:65
in which, Di represents the displacement in ith iteration, and the yield displacement Dy or
natural period Tn of iterative map is taken as controlling parameter.
For Tn = 1 s, the controlling parameter Dy is increased with the step length 0:01 cm in
the interval Dy ∈ [10; 41]. The results of iterative map (1) are shown as follows. When
Dy ∈ [10; 15:69], the solution of nonlinear map is divergent. When Dy ∈ [15:70; 38:64], the
solution of map is stable
xed point. The iterative plot of iterative map with Dy = 20 cm
demonstrates representatively that the
xed point Dp of the solution of map is present in the
interval Dy ∈ [15:70; 38:64], in which the derivation |f
(Dp )|¡1. When Dy ∈ [38:65; 40:54],
the solution of map is in the period-2 state. The iterative plot of iterative map with Dy = 40cm

∗ Correspondenceto: Dixiong Yang, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian
116023, China.
† E-mail: yangdx@dlut.edu.cn

Received 14 December 2005

Copyright ? 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 11 January 2006
1052 D. YANG AND G. LI

2 0.5
Lyapunov exponent LE 0
0.0

Lyapunov exponent LE
-2
-0.5
-4
-1.0
-6
-8 -1.5

-10 -2.0

20 24 28 32 36 40 44 40.0 40.2 40.4 40.6 40.8 41.0

Yield displacement Dy(cm) Yield displacement Dy(cm)

Figure 1. Lyapunov exponent of iterative map for Tn = 1 s, Dy ∈ [20; 41] and Dy ∈ [40; 41].

indicates representatively that the solution of map becomes unstable
xed point Dp in the
interval Dy ∈ [38:65; 40:54], in the meantime the derivative of
xed point |f
(Dp )|¿1. More-
over, the iterative point from initial point deviates the point Dp , which is attracted to the
stable period-2 point (38:327; 51:501) eventually. With the increase of parameter, the period-4,
period-8, etc., even chaotic solution occur for the iterative map through the route of period-
doubling. It is also seen that the cabined periodic window is present during this process.
The Lyapunov exponent, LE, can determine the evolutional state and stability of solution
of dynamical system, and identify whether the chaos will occur or not and the chaotic degree.
For the one-dimensional iterative map of equation xi+1 = f(xi ), the Lyapunov exponent is

expressed as LE = limn→∞ (1=n) in−1

= 0 ln |f (xi )| [1, 2]. Unfortunately, using the derivative of

xed point and periodic point to determine the stability of solution is only applicable to the
identi
cation of stability of these points including
xed point, period-2 and period-4 of simple
nonlinear system, because the compound iterative function can be expressed explicitly for the
simple situation. Therefore, the approach suggested in the referenced paper cannot be employed
to determine the evolutional state and stability of points including period-8, period-16 point
and even chaotic solution of dynamical system. Furthermore, the speci
ed displacement value
(Dspectrum = 44:64) was viewed as the true
xed point to calculate its derivative so as to
discuss the convergence and divergence of solution, which is inappropriate. As for Tn = 1 s,
Dy ∈ [20; 41] and Dy ∈ [40; 41], the Lyapunov exponent of Equation (1) is computed, and is
illustrated in Figure 1. Hence, for the iterative map (1) the investigation of bifurcation plots
and Lyapunov exponent has indicated that there exists the complicated dynamic behaviour
of solution of iterative map derived from the CSM in ATC-40 including not only both the
convergent solution (namely the
xed point) and divergent solution (namely the solution tends
to in
nite), but also the phenomena of periodic oscillation, period-doubling bifurcation and
chaos. Additionally, the phenomenon of periodic solution of simpli
ed CSM also demonstrates
that it could be inevitable for the periodic oscillation of iterative procedure due to ATC-40
capacity spectrum method.

REFERENCES
1. MaCauley JL. Chaos, Dynamics and Fractals. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1993.
2. Robinson RC. An Introduction to Dynamical System: Continuous and Discrete. Pearson Education Inc.:
New York, 2004.

Copyright ? 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Earthquake Engng Struct. Dyn. 2006; 35:1051–1052