Stochastic seismic response of multiply-supported secondary systems in flexible-base structures

Abstract

A formulation has been proposed for the transfer function of a secondary system response while the primary system is supported on a compliant soil and the excitation comprises of translational ground motion at its base. For this purpose, the earlier formulation of the authors for the fixed-base case, which exactly considers the interaction between the two sub-systems and is based on the use of their individual modal properties, has been extended. Also, the concept of modifying the input excitation for the interaction accelerations (associated with the soil–structure interaction) has been used. An example P–S system and three example earthquake excitations have been considered to illustrate the proposed formulation and to estimate the expected response peak amplitudes in the secondary system. This study shows that ‘detuning’ of the tuned systems may occur in case of significant soil–structure interaction. Further, for the reasons of both safety and economy, ignoring the interaction effects in designing the secondary systems may not always be justified. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.