Continuous Combinatorial Critical Excitation for S.D.O.

F Structures

P. Ashtaria*and S.H. Ghasemia

a
Civil Engineering Department of Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract: Earthquake is an uncertain and random phenomenon. Therefore, it is so much important to

find an excitation which can create the highest crisis in a structure under some specific constraints of
the earthquake such as earthquake intensity and amplitude limit of power spectral density (PSD). The
critical excitation proposed here, in this paper, is introduced in the frequency domain and the objective
function is the maximization of the mean square of story drift. The proposed critical excitation has the
capability to cover the frequency range of power spectral density function and to have maximum
responses. For this purpose, effort is made to adapt a linear combination of F() and Kanai-Tajimi
equation as the critical excitation, where F() represents critical response of the structure and Kanai-
Tajimi equation is PSD of the past natural earthquakes. These excitations are referred to as continuous
critical excitation. Also, single degree of freedom structures are investigated in the stationary sate.
Finally, the proposed method is compared with the other's method of finding critical excitation.

Keywords: Critical Excitation, Random Vibration, Critical Earthquake, Power Spectral Density.

1. INTRODUCTION

According to the occurrence of previous earthquakes, earthquake excitations dont follow any
known and distinctive rule either in the frequency domain or time domain. Therefore, this
explains why an earthquake has random and uncertain characteristics and future earthquakes
are not perfectly predictable. So, seismic design of structures based only on previous
earthquakes seems to be inadequate and there are lots of probable future earthquakes that are
more destructive. However, in the recent seismic design procedures, static and modal seismic
designs of structures are based on the design spectrum produced by previous earthquakes.

Recently, critical excitation methods have been developed to account for inherent uncertainty
of forthcoming earthquakes to obtain the worst critical input excitation considering some of
the properties of previous earthquakes as random phenomenon. Regarding seismicity power
of each region, a series of earthquake properties like power and intensity can be roughly
predictable. The first researcher who introduced the concept of critical excitation was
Papoulis [1], who used to term in electrical engineering in 1967. Then, Drenick [2] used the
method of critical excitation for structures in time domain. In this method, an input excitation
is obtained which produces the maximum response. In addition, Shinozuka [3] applied the
same method in the frequency domain and presented a narrower upper bound of the maximum
response.
Critical excitation method is an optimization problem that solves the problem to optimize the
objective function under constraints. Until now, many people have worked on different
constraints and objective functions. Iyengar [15], Manohar and Sarkar [4, 5] and Takewaki
[6,] are the researchers who extended the method to stochastic problem to consider the
uncertainty of earthquakes. Also, Ben-Haim and Elishakoff [7], Pantelides and Tzan [8]
presented several interesting convex models. Critical excitation method produces artificial
earthquakes which have greater responses than other artificial record generation methods
using Fourier transformation, wavelet theory and geophysics models.

*Email:Ashtari@znu.ac.ir
Recently, Takewaki has developed a new optimization problem in frequency domain to find
input excitation considering response resonance of higher modes of structure with input
excitation. His proposed constraints were the power limit (area under power spectral density
(PSD) function) and the intensity limit (magnitude of PSD function). Ashtari [9, 11, and 12]
introduced "Optimum Line" as a geometric technique for solving stationary optimization
problem. Then, an exact method for SDOF systems and a simple numerical technique was
proposed to find stationary critical excitation for MDOF systems. Finally, Ashtari [12]
proposed a more realistic expression of non-stationary critical excitation.

It is observed that previously proposed critical excitations are not able to fully cover the
earthquake's probable frequency range of power spectral density and they only focus on the
structures main frequency range. Based on the maximization, this issue seems to be evident,
but the obtained figure of the power spectral density function has no similarity to power
spectral density of the natural earthquake. This research is aimed at finding more realistic
critical input excitation. Therefore, it tries to propose a continuous critical excitation that is
more similar to natural earthquake. In this approach, we should first dwell on the theory of
random vibration method and then compare the structural response against different
excitations of different critical excitation methods. This paper applies the proposed critical
excitation optimization problem in the frequency domain due to maximization objective
function as the mean square of story drift.

The present paper introduces a new method to achieve more realistic critical excitation. In
the proposed method, power spectral density (PSD) of the input excitation is supposed to be
a linear combination of two functions called F() and Kanai-Tajimi. F() is a function of
dynamic parameters of the structure like modal frequencies and damping. Kanai-Tajimi
function is expressed as the excitation frequency content of previous earthquakes. Both of
these functions are continuous. Therefore, the combinatorial PSD of the resultant critical
excitation will be continuous as natural earthquakes. The optimization problem under
discussion is solved using Lagrangian method.

Finally, this technique is applied to many SDOF models having different natural periods and
the findings are investigated. Then, responses are compared with the previous methods
separately proposed by Ashtari [11] and Takewaki [6].

2. OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM OF CRITICAL EXCITATION USING RANDOM

VIBRATION THEORY

harmonic input
 in the frequency domain. As a result, we have:

This theory involves solving a dynamic equation of S.D.O.F system using Fourier transforms for a

M y (t) + Cy (t) + Ky(t) = x (t) (1)

y (t) + 2 y (t) +   y(t) = x (t)/M (2)

y =  + y (3)

y =
 [  ! + " #$ !] (4)

 = &()
 (5)

where &() is called the frequency response function which demonstrates the systems dynamic
characteristic and states. The ratio of the response to input and will be achieved by positioning ' in
Fourier's dynamic equation.

 ) &()
 + # * &()
 + + &()
 =
 (6)

&() = 1/{)[(   ) + 2#. ]} (7)

Ignoring the transient response of the dynamic system, we get:

(!) = &()0(!) (8)

With respect to Fourier transformations in random vibrations, 0(!) input and (!) output in time
domain will be transferred to the frequency domain. So, we have:

1() = 3 47 0(!)
 5!

2 67
(9)

8() = 3 47 (!)
 5!

2 67
(10)

Thus:

8() = &()1() (11)

Since &() is dynamic system characteristic, all that can be done is finding 1() which input
excitation to maximize is 8() . Now, given the chosen objective function, a critical excitation and
eventually dynamic response should be found. Like Ashtari [11] and Takewaki [6], it is set
maximization of mean square of story drift as our objective function. Given the random vibrations
theory, the mean square of response in specific condition that system is under an excitation force is as
follow:

9[  ] = 47 :();< ()5

67
(12)

where:

:() = |&()| (13)

where ;< () is the input power spectral density function. The highest possible value of
response is equal to the response (RMS) root mean square of drift. Having determined the
object function, input constraints have to be determined. In this paper, two constraints of
power and intensity of earthquake are used which lad to: the solution of the following
optimization problem:

)>0: 9[  ] = 47 :();< ()5

67
(14)

Subject to these constrains:

47 SA ()d SE
67
(15)
 sup ;< () I (16)

;I is the limitation of earthquake power and I is the limitation of earthquake intensity which are
achieved according to the previously recorded earthquakes.

Theoretically, this problem is solvable using normal methods such as Lagrangian normal methods,
like other optimization problems.

This paper intends to present a method other than difficult derivations. Therefore, a simplified and
more realistic method is obtained in order to analyze the structure against critical earthquake. This
proposed method will be able to present an acceptable answer as well as the ease of calculation. In
addition, solving the problem using Lagrange method is given here and simplification precision is
investigated as well.

This method has basis on the this evident issue that when two functions like ;< () and |&()| are
multiplied by each other, the maximum of product will happen when the two functions are at the
same phase in maximum points.

3. INTRODUCING ARTIFICIAL STATIONARY CONTINUOUS CRITICAL

EXCITATION

According to the existing conditions, we have:

)>0: 9[  ] = 47 :();< ()5

67
(14)

Subject to these constrains:

47 SA ()d SE
67
(15)

sup ;< () I (16)

In the above optimization problem, because :() depends on structure's characteristics, all that can
be found is ;< () which can create the highest response in the structure. Definitely, if input
excitation is as Dirac delta function over natural frequency of &(), the structural response will be
maximized. But the limitation of PSD amplitude causes a rectangular ;< () with the height of I
and its J will be achieved with respect to power limit. But in the real PSD of natural earthquake,
input excitation has continuous frequency content and also, has very different intensities at different
moments.

Then, having drawn |&()| , the limits of J will be achieved.

power spectral density

0.08

0.06
F-function

0.04

0.02

0.00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
circular frequency (rad/s)

Fig. 1. Function of discontinuous rectangular density

 From the PSD shown in Fig. 1, it can be seen that the above excitation doesnt correspond to any

separate rectangle in the frequency domain. In order to solve this problem, :() is taken as the
earthquake and no excitation arising from the recorded earthquakes has been like one or several

critical input excitation figure where will be achieved using the power limit. The reason for
choosing :() as critical input excitation is the result of theory of structural dynamics. If the
excitation frequency equals the function of frequency response &(), then resonance will happen. It
is an axiom principle in nature and mathematics that when some function with the same phases are

structure that has a sinus wave Sin(

N) with frequency(N) as its input excitation, thus:
multiplied by each other, maximum response will be achieved. In a single-degree-of-freedom

D = [(1  ) + (2) )]2/ (17)

= (
N/) (18)

where D is the ratio of dynamic response to static response.

It is observed in equation (17) that when = 1, means the natural frequency of structure and
excitation frequency are the same ( = 
N), so the ratio of dynamic response to static response (D)
will have its maximum value. Considering this principle, :() is taken the first continuous critical
excitation.

But as a result of this function it is clear that earthquake intensity constraint is not taken into
considerations. This matter necessitates another unknown parameter in input excitation. Therefore,
the critical excitation is supposed like the following equation:

;< () = :() + Q (19)

where is a constant value and leads to the following excitation figure.

Fig. 2: Function of PSD of excitation ;< () = :() + Q

This excitation seems to be improbable because of an equal intensity of excitation in much of

frequency range of an earthquake. In this paper, we use the ground excitation proposed by Kanai-
Tajimi which can represent ground input the excitation frequency content of previous earthquakes and
therefore, a linear combination of F () and Kanai-Tajimi function is introduced as the critical
excitation and it is led to the following excitation:

;< () = :() + Q ;S.U. () (20)

where F () represents the critical response of the structure and ;S.U. () as the Kanai-Tajimi
equation shows frequency content of natural earthquakes. In the above equation (20), ;S.U. ()is equal
to:

;S.U. () = ;V
[
W X 6YZW W [ [
[
\ [ W [ ] 6YZW [ W [ [
(21)

where < is the fundamental frequency of ground excitation, and .< is ground damping representing

Considering Q coefficient, it is not necessary to precisely apply S0.

the sharpness of the power spectral density function, and S0 is a white noise constant parameter.

function initiates, the need for filtering of equation (21) is felt to achieve ; = 0 at  = 0 like a
Given the fact that Kanai-Tajimi function is equal to the value of S0 in =0, where spectral density

natural earthquake. To do so, two filters introduced Lai and Clough is used here. Using Lai filter
gives:

;S.U_ () = ;V ([ 6 [ )

[
W X 6YZW W [ [ [
[
\[ W [ ] 6YZW [ W [ [ `
(22)

where a is a variable which determines the frequency content of ground motion. The more the
amount of a , the less the content of the low frequencies of ground motion. Therefore

;S.Ub () = ;V ( )
[
W X 6YZW W [ [ X
[ [
\ [ W [ ] 6YZW [ W [ [ \[ c [ ] 6YZc [ c [ [
(23)

where parameters d , .d and < , .A will be taken into account for soft and solid soil.

;V .A .e
Table 1: Clough filter parameters
Soil type A (rad/sec) e (rad/sec)
Solid 1.5 0.6 1.5 0.6 15
Soft 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.2 5

The combinatorial input excitation is taken as:

;< () = :() + Q ;S.U. () (20)

In this equation, parameters and will be achieved through solving the following two-unknown,
two-equation system with respect to the constraints of earthquake intensity and power. This method is
named simplified method.

;I = 4 :()5 + 4 Q (;S.U. ())5g

6 6
f
I = )>0[ :() + Q ;S.U. ()]
(24)

It should be noted that in the second equation of above, I is obtained at  =  or around this area,
where  equals to the fundamental natural frequency of structure.

It is clear that the closer the < of the dominant frequency of ground excitation is close to  of the
structures fundamental frequency, the stronger critical excitation. But if the ground frequency < is
 equal to the structures main frequency  , a rare with low possibility of occurrence has happened.

Therefore, considering the condition < =  in Kanai-Tajimi equation, equation (22) will be
Therefore, these excitations are referred to as rare continuous critical excitations in this paper.

revised as (25) in order to achieve the rare continuous critical excitation.

;S.U_ () = ;V ([ ([ 6 [)

[
hijk l X 6YZl l [ [ [
[
l [ )[ 6YZl l [ [ `
(25)

4. SOLVIBG OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM USING LAGRANIAN METHOD

In order to use the Lagrangian method to solve the optimization problem, the critical excitation is
solved in an example and the obtained response is compared to the simplified continuous critical
excitation method.

In this example, a dynamic system with a mass of 25330 kg, stiffness of 106 N/m, and a damping of 2
% is subjected to an earthquake with the following characteristics:

;I = 0.033 n q , I = 0.278 n pX q , A = 13.5 (rad/sec) , .A = 13.5,  = 1.5 (rad/sec)

o[ o[
pX

To solve using Lagrangian method, optimization problem as follow:

)>0: 9[  ] = 47 :();< ()5

6
(14)
Subject to these constrains:

47 SA ()d SE
6
(15)

sup ;< () I (16)

We assume:

;< () = :() + Q ;+.y. () (20)

Solving the problem gives coefficients and in equation (20). In order to use Lagrangian
method, the optimization problem is written as:

6
}~() = 9[  ] = :();< ()5 = 0.0318 +0.2252Q
{ 
6 g
| () = ;I ;< ()5 = 0.278 (0.158 +37.103Q)
{ 
z () = I ;< () = 0.033 (0.401 +1.4364Q)

We get:

} ~ + + = 0
{ g
|~
{ + + =0
zQ Q Q
Therefore:

0.0318 0.158 0.401 = 0 g

0.2252 39.10 1.436 = 0

And as a result:

= 0.00288 g

= 0.07816

Hence:

6
() = ;I ;< ()5 = 0.278 (0.158 +37.103Q) g

() = I ;< () = 0.033 (0.401 +1.4364Q)

And eventually we have:

= 0.0566 g
f
Q = 0.0068

Now, the previous example is solved using the simplified method.

;I = 47 :()5 + 47 Q ;+.y. ()5g

6 6
f
I = :()oi + Q (;+.y. ())oi
(24)

We get:

0.1583 + 37.1029Q = 0.278 g

0.4010 + 1.43640Q = 0.033

Therefore:

= 0.0566 g
f
Q = 0.0068

It is observed that response from both methods are fully equal and because of linearity of
Lagrangian optimization equation, it can be inferred from outset at first that solving the
problem is independent of Lagrangian coefficients and the simplified equation gives exactly
the same response.

5. COMPARISON OF THE PROPOSED METHOD WITH THE OTHER METHOD

centro earthquake's excitation with ;I = 0.278( X ) and I = 0.033(m /s ) and a structural damping
[
In order to solve the stationary excitation for S.D.O.F system, it is assumed to be subjected to the El-

ratio 0.02. Meanwhile, the dominant frequency of ground is A = 13.5 n  q ,  = 1.5(rad/sec),

and .A = 0.39.
Responses will be achieved under the combinatorial excitation of ;< () = :() + Q ;+.y. ()
using Lai filter and then will be compared with findings from previous methods. The effect of filtering
of Kanai-Tajimi equation will be scrutinized in three cases (without filter, with Clough filter, with Lai
filter). The results are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2: Comparison of continuous critical excitation methods responses with Takewaki and
Ashatri methods

T ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
in Takewaki in Ashtari in rare continuous critical in rare continuous critical continuous critical
(sec) method (cm) method (cm) excitation method with excitation with Clough excitation without
Lai filter (cm) filter (cm) filter(cm)

0.0 0 0 0 0 0
0.5 5.7 4.6 2.26 2.13 2.24
1.0 14.17 7.78 5.85 5.43 5.85
1.5 23.35 13.79 10.46 9.67 10.50
2.0 32.95 15.93 15.82 14.25 16.05
2.5 42.81 25.24 21.93 20.44 22.36
3.0 52.67 34.01 28.50 26.8 29.43

The Table results shows that all the continuous critical excitations will give similar responses, but
generally the responses of continuous critical excitation are approximately 85- 90 % of the responses
obtained by Ashtari's [11] critical excitation method and 50-60 % of those proposed by Takewaki [6].
The data of Table 2 are graphically displayed in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. The comparison of critical responses: CCE-Lai is continuous critical excitation using the Lai
filter and CCE-Clough is continuous critical excitation using the Clough filter, CE-Takewaki is
Takewaki's critical excitation, and CE-Ashtari is Ashtari's critical excitation.

Continuous spectral density function is demonstrated in Fig. 4 using various filters in time period
T=0.628 second and damping ratio is 0.02.
 Fig. 4-a Fig. 4-b

Fig. 4-c
Fig.4. (Fig. 4-a) PSD function of continuous critical excitation with Clough filter, (Fig. 4-b) PSD
function of continuous critical excitation with Lai filter, (Fig. 4-c) PSD function of continuous critical
excitation without any filtering.

As it can be seen, the density of Lai spectrum demonstrates a more real figure; therefore, using this
filter is recommended in order to find critical response of the structure.

Additionally, rare continuous excitations were used in order to find more critical responses. The
results are given in Table 3.

Table 3: Comparison of the responses of rare continuous critical excitation and those obtained by
Takewaki and Ashtari

T ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
(sec) Takewaki method (cm) Ashtari method (cm) rare continuous excitation continuous critical
method with Lai filter (cm) excitation without filter(cm)

0.0 0 0 0 0
0.5 5.7 4.6 2.27 2.24
1.0 14.17 7.78 7.55 7.63
1.5 23.35 13.79 15.76 15.18
2.0 32.95 15.93 26.83 25.68
2.5 42.81 25.24 40.63 38.84
3.0 52.67 34.01 56.98 54.66
As it can be seen in Table 3 responses of continuous combinatorial critical excitation are almost equal
to those of Ashtari's [11] method and 70% of Takewakis [6] responses. This shows that rare
continuous combinatorial excitation causes some appropriate critical excitation as well as continuity.

In Fig. 5, illustrates the curve of spectral density of rare continuous critical excitation with the Lai
filter in T=1.00 second.

Fig. 5. Rare continuous critical excitation with Lai filter

Fig. 6. Comparison of responses of rare continuous critical excitation using Lai filter (CCE), critical
excitation using Takewaki method (CE-T), and critical excitation proposed by Ashatri (CE-A).

From Fig. 5and Table 2 it can be observed that the result of the rare continuous spectral density takes
the same rectangular shape as Takewaki discontinuous critical excitation in low frequencies.

6. CONCLUSION

In this research the continuous combinatorial critical excitation is obtained having in this work
appropriate spectral density function within the frequency range. Accordingly, they can give a more
real representation of the earthquake while resulting in critical responses.

In this paper, three types of continuous combinatorial critical excitation were proposed and the linear
combination of the frequency response function and Kanai-Tajimi spectral density was chosen as the
best alternative.

In addition, the simplification method was proposed in order to solve such optimization problems and
its accuracy was checked by using Lagrange optimization method. The responses obtained by using
this method were about 90 % of responses of those that Ashtari [11] arrived at and around 60% of
Takewaki [6] responses.

Meanwhile, the starting point of proposed spectral density function was modified using two types of
filters and the Lai filter was recommended as the better one.

In order to make the responses more critical, another continuous excitation was introduced which
gives the responses about 75% of the responses obtained through Takewaki [6] method. This type of
excitation was called rare continuous combinatorial critical excitation.

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