modern seismic design approaches, such as displacement-based design.

16 Considerable
analyticaleffortshavebeenundertaken(e.g.seeBommerandElnashai17,TolisandFaccioli18 and Borzi et
al.19). Such spectra are discussed in informative Annex A of EN 1998-1. The maximum velocity (Sv) and
acceleration (Sa) can be derived directly from Sd. The values of Sv and Sa are spectral pseudo-velocity
and pseudo-acceleration, respectively. The prefix ‘pseudo’ indicates that such values do not correspond
to the actual peak spectral velocity and acceleration. The real values would be calculated by
differentiation, while pseudo-
valuesareobtainedbyassumingsimpleharmonicoscillation.Forthepracticalrange of damping in earthquake
engineering (0.5 £ ξ £ 10%) and for low-to-medium period structures (0.2 £ T £ 1.0 s), the pseudo-
velocity spectrum is a close approximation of the true relative velocity spectrum. However, for
structures with supplemental damping (ξ > 15-20%), e.g. with passive, active and/or semi-active
vibration control devices, the differences between maximum absolute acceleration and Sa increase as a
function of the natural period T.20 Acceleration response spectra are related directly to the base shear
used in the seismic design,andhencetheyareimplementedinforce-
basedcodes,suchasEurocode8.Response
accelerationspectracanbecomputedforthethreetranslationalcomponentsofearthquake ground motions,
e.g. horizontal (longitudinal and transversal) and vertical. Horizontal and vertical spectra are influenced
by different frequency contents and ground accelerations.
Theirshapesandvaluesarediscussedinclauses3.2.2.2and3.2.2.3,respectively.Foragiven component of
ground motion, the response spectra depend significantly on the relative
distancebetweentheseismicsourceandtheobservationsite.Forexample,Fig.3.4showsthe response spectra
for the 1940 El Centro and the 1994 Northridge earthquakes, which are representative of strong
motions registered close to and far from the seismic source,
respectively.Differencesinshapebetweenfar-andnear-sourceresponsespectraaredueto the frequency
content of the input motion. The former are generally broad-band signals, while the latter are narrow-
band, pulse-like records. For distant earthquakes, the rupture
canbeassumedtobeuniformandinstantaneous;thegroundmotionatthesiteisinfluenced to a lesser extend
by the source seismological characteristics. This assumption cannot be safelymadefornear-
sourceearthquakegroundmotion;site-specificstudiesarewarranted. Vertical components of ground
motion show typical features of near-fault records, as discussed further in clause 3.2.2.3. Elastic spectra
are useful tools for structural design and assessment. They do not, however, account for the inelasticity
and stiffness and strength degradation experienced
duringsevereearthquakes.Structuralsystemsarenotdesignedtoresistearthquakeforcesin their elastic
range, excepting a very few cases of safety-critical installations (e.g. nuclear power plants, which are not
covered in Eurocode 8). Concepts of energy absorption and plastic redistribution are used to reduce the
elastic seismic forces by as much as 80%. As already described in Section 2.2.2.1, the inelastic behaviour
of structures is quantified
throughthebehaviourfactor(q),providedintherelevantpartsofEurocode8.Highqvalues
correspondtolargeinelasticdeformations;forlinearlyelasticsystems,thebehaviourfactor
isunity.Thus,inelasticspectraforatargetlevelofinelasticitywereestimatedbydividingthe ordinates of the
elastic spectra by the q factors (e.g. see Newmark and Hall,21 Borzi and Elnashai,22 and many others),
as discussed in clause 3.2.2.5. The reduction of the elastic spectra by the use of q factors given in clause
3.2.2.5 of EN1998-1isthemostcommonlyusedapproachtoderiveinelasticspectra.Theapproachis employed
in Eurocode 8 to evaluate design base shears. If other design requirements are included (e.g. minimum
base shear, to safeguard against force increase as the structure yields) the inelastic spectrum becomes a
design spectrum. However, this approach makes use of static concepts to scale the elastic spectrum,
obtained from dynamic analysis. It is, as such, insensitive to characteristics of the earthquake motion
which affect the hysteretic damping. More accurate results can be obtained by non-linear dynamic
analysis of SDOF systems subjected to earthquake input.11,23,24