“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Building Services

Master: Structural Engineering in English

Academic Year: 2015-2016, 2nd Semester

Topic: Advanced Earthquake Engineering

HOMEWORK NO. 2
COMPUTER PROGRAMS PORTFOLIO
Author:

May 2016
Problem no. 1

Graphs of Earthquake acceleration records. Vrancea 1977

1. Requirements
Draw the accelerations recorded during the Vrancea 1977 Earthquake.
2. Analysis
The file is named VRAN.ACC and contains the Vrancea EW,NS and UD components.
3. Computer program
For obtaining the requirements a Matlab computer program was conceived.

% author:
% master: Structural Engineering
% topic: Advanced Earthquake Engineering
% academic year: 2015-2016

close all
clear all
disp('Graph of Vrancea Earthquake 1977')

% load into memory the earthquake data

load vran.acc

% obtain the size of the file data

[n,m]=size(vran);

% sampling time

step=0.01; % seconds
time=0:step:(n-1)*step; % time interval

% select the East-West earthquake component

ew=vran(:,1);
h11=figure;
set(h11,'color',[0.8 0.6 0.5]) % culoarea exteriorului graficului
h12=plot(time,ew,[0,time(end)],[0,0]);
set(h12(1),'LineWidth',1.5,'color',[0.8 0.1 0.1])
set(h12(2),'LineWidth',2.5,'LineStyle','-.')
h13=xlabel('Time(sec)');
set(h13,'FontName','Times','FontSize',14)
h14=ylabel('Acceleration (cm/sec^2)');
set(h14,'FontName','Times','FontSize',14)
h15=title('Vrancea Earthquake 1977, East-West component');
set(h15,'FontName','Times','FontSize',18)

[maxy,imax]=max(ew); % min and max of values

[miny,imin]=min(ew);
maxabs=max(abs(ew)); % max absolut

ax=axis; % variabila care stocheaza axele

ax(2)=time(end);
ax(3)=miny-maxabs/15; % spatiul de sus sa fie la fel ca spatiul de jos in
varfurile graficului
ax(4)=maxy+maxabs/15;
axis(ax); % scurtarea din dreapta a graficului

h16=text(time(imax),maxy,['-- max=',num2str(maxy),'cm/s^2 at
time=',num2str(time(imax))]); % valoarea maximului de pe grafic cu fct num2str
si timpul inregistrat
set(h16,'FontName','Times','FontSize',12)

h17=text(time(imin),miny,['-- min=',num2str(miny),'cm/s^2 at
time=',num2str(time(imin))]); % valoarea minimului de pe grafic cu fct num2str
si timpul inregistrat
set(h17,'FontName','Times','FontSize',12)

set(gca,'color',[0.7 0.6 0.5]) % culoarea interiorului graficului

% select the North-South earthquake component

ns=vran(:,2);
figure
plot(time,ns,[0,time(end)],[0,0])

% select the Up-Down earthquake component

ud=vran(:,3);
figure
plot(time,ud,[0,time(end)],[0,0])

4. Results
The results are the graphs shown below.

Vrancea Earthquake 1977, East-West component

-- max=162.338cm/s 2 at time=2.8
150

100
Acceleration (cm/sec )
2

50

-50

-100

-- min=-126.12cm/s 2 at time=3.07
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time(sec)
5. Comments
The requirements have been obtained using Matlab and the graph’s results have been presented.