Attenuation of Hysteretic Energy Spectra of Strong Ground Motion

Based on 266 strong ground motions from 15 significant earthquakes in California of America, the attenuation law of hysteretic spectra is established by using nonlinear regression method, and the effects of site class and ductility level on the hysteretic spectra constructed from the attenuation relationship are discussed in the paper. The results show that the site has significant effects on hysteretic energy spectra, and the more soft the site is, the more hysteretic energy structure will suffer from earthquake. Moreover, for ductility level scaled by ductility factor, the results show that structure with greater ductility factor can dissipate more input energy from the earthquake by means of the plastic deformation. The up limit design value of ductility factor for a structure is proposed as 4 because there is little difference between the hysteretic energy demand for ductility factor 4 and larger values. The hysteretic energy demand for structures at a given site in scenario earthquakes can be evaluated according to the results of the paper.