The method is typically used to estimate the response of a building or of a
piping system in a building to an earthquake. The method is not appropriate if
the excitation is so severe that nonlinear effects in the system are important.
In such a case the time history of the base excitation must be known and used
with a dynamic analysis step to obtain the system's response.
Even for a linear system the response spectrum method provides only
estimates of the peak response. If more precise values are required, a modal
dynamic analysis step can be used to integrate the system through time and,
thus, develop its response to the given base excitation.
In response spectrum analysis the estimates of peak values are obtained by
combining the peak responses of the participating modes corresponding to
user-specified spectra definitions. Several approximations are introduced by
response spectrum analysis. The conversion from a time history of excitation
into an equivalent frequency domain spectrum is based on the behavior of a
single degree of freedom system. Different spectra are often applied in
different excitation directions. Once the spectra are known, the peak modal
responses can be calculated. The manner in which these peak modal responses are
combined to estimate the peak physical response, together with the manner in
which multidirectional excitations are combined, introduces approximations.
Since no one method gives good approximations for all cases, several methods
are offered. These methods are discussed in the
Regulatory
Guide 1.92 (1976) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in the
papers by
Anagnastopoulos
(1981),
Der
Kiureghian (1981), and
Smeby
(1984) and in the book by
A. K.
Gupta (1990). The choice of the summation rules depends on the
particular case and is a matter of the user's judgment.
Since response spectrum analysis is commonly used as a basic design tool,
spectra are defined in many design codes for such applications as seismic
analysis of buildings. In such cases the user works from the given spectra. In
other cases the time history of a known base excitation must first be converted
into a response spectrum by considering the response of a single degree of
freedom system excited by the known base motion. For this purpose the single
degree of freedom system is characterized by its undamped natural frequency,
,
and the fraction of critical damping present in the system,
.
The equation of motion of the system is integrated through time to find peak
values of relative displacement, relative velocity, and absolute acceleration.
The integration described in
Modal dynamic analysis
can be used for this purpose, since it is exact when the base motion record
varies linearly with time. Thus, the maximum values of displacement, velocity,
and acceleration are found for the linear, one degree of freedom system. This
process is repeated for all frequency and damping values in the range of
interest to construct displacement, velocity, and acceleration spectra,
,
and .
A Fortran program to build spectra in this way from an acceleration record is
given in
Analysis of a cantilever subject to earthquake motion
(file
cantilever_spectradata.f.)
If there is no damping, the relationship between ,
,
and
is given by
In
Abaqus/Standard
it is assumed that the damping is always small, so these relationships are used
whenever a conversion is needed.
A response spectrum is defined by giving a table of values of
S at increasing values of frequency,
,
for increasing values of damping, .
Linear interpolation on a logarithmic scale is used to compute the response for
any required frequency and damping factor. Any number of spectra can be
defined.
The response spectrum procedure allows up to three spectra, which we denote
by k, ,
to be applied to the model in orthogonal physical directions defined by their
direction cosines, .
These spectra can come from different excitations (with a certain level of
correlation between them), or they can be components of a single base
excitation acting in an arbitrary direction.
When modal methods are used to define a model's response, the value of any
physical variable is defined from the amplitudes of the modal responses (the
“generalized coordinates”), .
The first stage in the response spectrum procedure is to estimate the peak
values of these modal responses. For mode
and spectrum k this is
where
is a user-defined scaling parameter,
is the kth displacement spectrum,
is the jth direction cosine for the
kth spectrum, and
is the participation factor for mode
in direction j (see
Variables associated with the natural modes of a model
for the definition of ).
Similar expressions for
and
are obtained by using velocity or acceleration spectra in the above formula.
We now have estimates of the peak responses of the “generalized
coordinates”—the amplitudes of the responses of the natural modes of the system
for excitation in each direction. If the input spectra in the different
directions are components of a single base excitation acting in an arbitrary
direction, for each mode we can combine these peak responses into a single
value by specifying algebraic summation of the values for the different spatial
directions:
In this case the modal combinations discussed below still apply, but the
subscript k is no longer relevant and should be ignored.
Let us denote by
the peak response of some physical variable
(a component of displacement, stress, section force, reaction force, etc.)
caused by motion in the natural mode
excited by the response spectrum in excitation direction k
at frequency
and with damping .
Denote the component of the eigenvector
associated with
by .
Then
and
We need to combine these estimates of the peak physical responses in the
individual modes into estimates of the total peak response of the particular
physical variable to the given spectrum, .
Since the peak responses in the different modes will not in general occur at
the same time, this combination is only an estimate, so several formulæ are
offered, as follows:
Summation of the absolute values of the modal peak responses estimates
This provides the most conservative estimate of the peak response, since it
assumes that all modes provide peak response in phase at the same time.
Square root of the summation of the squares
(SRSS) estimates
This summation usually provides a reasonable estimate if the natural
frequencies of the modes are well separated.
The Naval Research Laboratory method distinguishes the mode,
,
in which the physical variable has its maximum response, and adds the square
root of the sum of squares of the peak responses in all other modes to the
absolute value of the peak response of that mode. This gives the estimate
Again, the modes must be reasonably well-spaced in the frequency domain to
obtain an accurate estimate with this method.
A variety of methods are available that aim to improve the estimation for
structures with closely spaced frequencies.
Abaqus/Standard
provides two of them: the Ten Percent Method recommended by
Regulatory
Guide 1.92 (1976) of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the
Complete Quadratic Combination Method, which was first introduced by
Der
Kiureghian (1981) and developed by
Smeby
and Der Kiureghian (1984). Both methods reduce to the
SRSS method if the modes are well separated
with no coupling among them.
Two additional methods, the Grouping Method and the Double Sum Combination
Method, are also available to satisfy
Regulatory
Guide 1.92.