PARAMETRIC EFFECT OF VERTICAL GROUND ACCELERATION ON THE EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE OF ELASTIC STRUCTURES

An analytical procedure is presented for the calculation of the statistical properties of the response of a linear elastic tall building under earthquake excitation. To illustrate the application of the method, numerical results are presented for a six-story building. For computational purposes, the structural properties are evaluated using the finite element method. Within the limit of linear elastic deformation, the vertical ground acceleration is shown to be capable of causing only a slight increase of 0.08% in the lateral displacement for this moderately tall building. The percentage is expected to be larger for a taller building and much larger when the deformations exceed the elastic limit. -from Authors