Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The response of a structural frame to earthquake ground motion is predicted using the structural mixture theory (SMT). This research presents four different case studies to evaluate the performance of the structure mixture theory in the earthquake response analysis of buildings. In the first case study, the actual earthquake responses of the two-story reinforced concrete building, which was tested at the University of California at Berkeley, were compared to those obtained using the SMT. In the second case study, the seven-story reinforced concrete building, which was tested as a part of the US-Japan Cooperative Earthquake Program, was considered. The third case study is about the calculation of nodal deflection amplitude with SMT and comparison of the results obtained from Wilson- method. In the fourth case study, the observed earthquake response of a nine-story steel frame building during San Fernando earthquake is compared with the SMT numerical results of the structure. All the case studies showed that the structure mixture theory (SMT) results were very close to the experimental and numerical results. The mean differences between the maximum roof displacements obtained experimentally and numerically in all of the four case studies and those obtained using the SMT were found to be equal to 3.5%, 3.2%, 2.4% and 5.6% respectively. The structural mixture theory is valid for multipledegree-of-freedom structures under the type of ground motions used in this study, and it appears to be applicable to systems with linear or nonlinear behavior.