Engineering Seismology

Assignment
PREPARATION OF RESPONSE SPECTRUM FOR TABAS EARTHQUAKE,
IRAN 1978

PRADEJ BADAL | MSCEQ -10 | 11/20/2020

Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2
Response Spectrum ............................................................................................................... 2
Numerical Evaluation of Dynamic Response: Central Difference Method ........................ 3
Matlab code ........................................................................................................................... 5
Results and Graphics ............................................................................................................. 7
Discussion and Conclusion ................................................................................................. 10
References............................................................................................................................ 10

PAGE 1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the assignment is to understand the concept of Response spectrum and
prepare a Response spectrum of a real earthquake of past of considerable magnitude. For
this purpose, the data was obtained from the PEER (Pacific Earthquake Engineering
Research) website. The downloaded data is of the magnitude 7.35 earthquake recorded in
Tabas, Iran 1978.

TABAS

Fig: Location of the Earthquake

For the preparation of the response spectrum numerical approach of central difference
method was used as explained below.

RESPONSE SPECTRUM
The response spectrum provides a convenient means to summarize the peak response of
all possible linear SDF systems to a particular component of ground motion. It also
provides a practical approach to apply the knowledge of the structural dynamics to the
design of structures and development of lateral force requirements in buildings codes.

A plot of the peak value of the response quantity as a function of the natural vibration
peiod Tn of the system, or a related parameter such as circular frequency 𝜔𝑛 or cyclic
frequency fn is called the response spectrum for that quantity. Each such plot is for the
SDOF systems having a fixed damping ratio and several such plots for the different values
of damping are included to cover the range of damping values encountered in actual
structures. Whether the peak response is plotted against frequency or time period is a
purely personal choice, however a variety of response spectrum can be prepared
depending upon the response quantity that is plotted i.e. displacement response spectrum

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(displacement vs time period) or velocity spectrum (velocity vs time period) or
acceleration spectrum ( acceleration vs time period).

The response spectrum for a given ground motion component 𝑢𝑔̈ (t) can be developed by
implementation of the following steps;

1. Numerically define the ground acceleration 𝑢𝑔̈ (t); typically, the ground motion
ordinates are defined every 0.02 secs.
2. Select the natural vibration period Tn and damping ratio of a SDOF system.
3. Compute the deformation response u(t) of this SDOF system due to the ground
motion 𝑢𝑔̈ (t) by any of the numerical methods. (In this case Central Difference
method was used.)
4. After determining u(t), the velocity and acceleration at each time step of the given
motion is determined i.e.,𝑢(𝑡)̇ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢(𝑡)
̈ .
5. ̇ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢(𝑡)
Then the peak values of u(t), 𝑢(𝑡) ̈ for a given SDOF with a damping value
is determined and similar process is applied to obtain the three results of the peak
displacement, velocity and acceleration for all the applicable time period values of
the SDOFs.
6. Plotting the peak values of displacement/ velocity/ acceleration vs time/frequency
gives the required response spectrum.
7. Pseudo velocity spectrum and pseudo acceleration spectrum can also be prepared
from the previously obtained displacement spectrum by dividing the
displacements with the structures 𝜔 and multiplying by 𝜔2 of the structures
respectively.

NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF DYNAMIC RESPONSE: CENTRAL DIFFERENCE

METHOD
Analytical solution of the equation of motion of a SDOF is not possible if the excitation-
applied force p(t) or the ground acceleration 𝑢𝑔̈ (t) varies arbitrarily with time or if the
system is nonlinear. Such problems can be tackled by numerical time stepping methods
for the integration of differential equations. One of such method used to solve this
assignment is Central Difference Method.

This method is based on a finite difference approximation of the time derivatives of

displacement (i.e., velocity and acceleration). Taking constant time steps, ∆𝑡𝑖 = ∆𝑡, the
central difference expression for velocity and acceleration at time i are
(𝑢𝑖+1 −𝑢𝑖−1 ) (𝑢𝑖+1 −2𝑢𝑖 +𝑢𝑖−1 )
𝑢𝑖̇ = 2∆𝑡
And 𝑢𝑖̈ = ∆𝑡 2

Substituting these approximate expressions for the velocity and acceleration into the
equation of motion, we get;

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 (𝑢𝑖+1 − 2𝑢𝑖 + 𝑢𝑖−1 ) (𝑢𝑖+1 − 𝑢𝑖−1 )
𝑚 + 𝑐 + 𝑘𝑢𝑖 = 𝑝𝑖
∆𝑡 2 2∆𝑡
In this equation 𝑢𝑖 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑖−1 are assumed known (from implementation of the procedure
for the preceding time steps). Transferring these known quantities to the right side leads
to

𝑚 𝑐 𝑚 𝑐 2𝑚
[ 2
+ ] 𝑢𝑖+1 = 𝑝𝑖 − [ 2 − ] 𝑢𝑖−1 − [𝑘 − 2 ] 𝑢𝑖
∆𝑡 2∆𝑡 ∆𝑡 2∆𝑡 ∆𝑡

Or

𝑘̂ 𝑢𝑖+1 = 𝑝̂𝑖

Where
𝑚 𝑐
𝑘̂ = 2
+
∆𝑡 2∆𝑡
And

𝑚 𝑐 2𝑚
𝑝̂𝑖 = 𝑝𝑖 − [ − ] 𝑢 (𝑖−1) − [𝑘 − ]𝑢
∆𝑡 2 2∆𝑡 ∆𝑡 2 𝑖

The unknown 𝑢𝑖+1 is then given by

𝑝̂𝑖
𝑢𝑖+1 =
𝑘̂
The solution 𝑢𝑖+1 𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖 + 1 is determined from the equilibrium condition at time i
without using the equilibrium condition at time i+1 .Such methods are called explicit
methods.

We can observe form the above equations that at the first time steps the known
displacements 𝑢𝑖 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑖−1are used to compute 𝑢𝑖+1 . Thus 𝑢0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢−1, we specialize for i=0
to obtain
(𝑢1 −𝑢−1 ) (𝑢1 −2𝑢0 +𝑢−1 )
𝑢0̇ = 2∆𝑡
𝑢0̈ = ∆𝑡 2

Solving for 𝑢1 from the first equation and substituting in the second gives

(∆𝑡)2
𝑢−1 = 𝑢0 − ∆𝑡(𝑢0̇ ) + 𝑢̈ 0
2
The initial displacement 𝑢0 and initial velocity 𝑢𝑜̇ are given, and the equation of motion at
time =0,

𝑚𝑢̈ 0 + 𝑐𝑢̇ 0 + 𝑘𝑢𝑜 = 𝑝𝑜

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Provides the acceleration at time O:

𝑝𝑜 − 𝑐𝑢̇ 0 − 𝑘𝑢𝑜
𝑢̈ 0 =
𝑚

In this way the displacement, velocity, and acceleration at different time steps is obtained
using the analytical solution method of Central difference method.

MATLAB CODE
The matlab code used to perform the numerical solution of the dynamic equation is given
below. First of all, the earthquake data (TABAS.txt) was load into the matlab system.

load TABAS.txt
%data load into matlab
data=TABAS;
time=0:0.02:34.98;
% time step of dt=0.02 secs
data=reshape(data',[1750,1]);
m=10000;
% mass of the SDOF assumed to be 10000 kg.
tn=0.01:0.05:4;
% response spectrum upto 4 sec structures with step of
0.05 secs.
for i=1:length(tn)
k(1,i)=((2*3.14)^2*m)/(tn(1,i))^2;
c(1,i)=2*m*0.05*((2*3.14)/tn(1,i));
bk=(m/(0.02)^2)+(c(1,i)/(2*0.02));
a=(m/(0.02)^2)-(c(1,i)/(2*0.02));
b=k(1,i)-((2*m)/(0.02)^2);
ddu(1,2)=data(1,1)*-9.81;
u(1,1)=(((0.02)^2)/2)*ddu(1,2);
for j=2:(length(time))

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u(1,2)=0;
du(1,2)=0;
p(1,j)=m*data((j-1),1)*-9.81;
bp(1,j)=p(1,j)-(a*u(1,j-1))-(b*u(1,j));
u(1,j+1)=bp(1,j)/bk;
du(1,j)=(u(1,j+1)-u(1,j-1))/(2*.02);
ddu(1,j)=(u(1,j+1)-(2*u(1,j))+u(1,j-1))/(0.02^2);
end
umax(1,i)=max(abs(u));
dumax(1,i)=max(abs(du));
ddumax(1,i)=max(abs(ddu));
% obtaining maximum in each steps
end
plot(tn,ddumax)
plot(tn,dumax)
plot(tn,umax)
%plotting each individually
xlabel('Time(secs)')
ylabel('Displacement(m)')
grid on
title('Displacement Spectrum(TABAS,1978)')

PAGE 6
RESULTS AND GRAPHICS

Fig: Code in Matlab

PAGE 7
Fig: Acceleration Time History of TABAS, 1978 earthquake

Fig: Displacement Spectrum of TABAS, 1978 earthquake

PAGE 8
 Fig: Velocity Spectrum of TABAS, 1978 earthquake

Fig: Acceleration Spectrum of TABAS, 1978 earthquake

PAGE 9
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In this ways the response spectrum of the TABAS 1978 earthquake prepared. The results
were matched form the results obtained from the seismosoft software and thus gave a
similar response spectrum. The maximum spectral acceleration was around 3.5 𝑚/𝑠 2 for
the structures with time period around 0.55 secs. Therefore, it can be assumed that this
earthquake was particularly hazardous for the structures with such natural period of
vibration (low to lower -medium rise buildings). The area then had little settlement with
abode construction materials and low rise buildings. Around 80 villages were ruined
killing around 16000 people. It was one of the biggest earthquakes that occurred in Iran.

REFERENCES
1. Dynamics of Structures, A.K. Chopra
2. https://ngawest2.berkeley.edu/
3. Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, S.L Kramer
4. Mathworks inc.

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