Effects of pulse like ground motion records with and without acceleration pulses on the earthquake responses of structures with varying dynamic properties

Abstract

This study is focused on the effects of acceleration pulses on the damaging potentials of velocity pulse-like ground motion (GM) records. In the study, previously identified pulse-like GM records with and without acceleration pulses are used together with far fault (FF) GM records. The selected GM records are used in the nonlinear time history analyses of structural systems with different dynamic properties. The structural systems used in the analyses were designed to represent commonly used short and medium height structures. The damaging potentials of GM records are compared in terms of commonly used engineering demand parameters (EDPs); (i) doof drift ratio, (ii) residual displacement, (iii) interstory drift distribution, and (iv) shear force distribution throughout the height of the building. The results of the analyses revealed that the velocity pulse-like GM records with acceleration pulses significantly increase the earthquake demands on short to medium height structures. On contrary to that the velocity pulse-like GM records without significant acceleration pulses don't have any additional damage potential for short to medium height structures. Furthermore, in terms of considered EDPs, the structural demands due to FF GM records are even higher than those caused by velocity pulse-like GM records without acceleration pulses. These results showed that the studies focusing on the damaging effects of pulse-like GM records on short to medium height structures should eliminate the velocity pulse-like GM records without acceleration pulses from their GM pools. Such an elimination may reduce the scatter observed in the results of such studies.