MAXIMUM RESPONSE OF ASYMMETRIC STRUCTURES SUBJECT TO A MULTICOMPONENT EARTHQUAKE

A simple and general technique to obtain a six-component earthquake input motion of a rigid foundation using three-linear-components earthquake record is presented. Using the multicomponent input, the maximum structural response to an arbitrarily oriented earthquake is derived. The method is applied to determine the response spectrum for a two-d.o.f. laterally and torsionally coupled linear system. The effects of foundation geometry, structural properties and apparent wave velocity on the structural response are investigated. It is found that increasing the foundation size reduces the peak values of the input motion; this reduction is more pronounced for a square foundation than for a circular one.