Seismic response of steel structures subjected to near-field ground motions

Near-fault ground motions contain distinct velocity and displacement pulses. Such ground motions were recorded in both Northridge, and Kobe earthquakes, and most recently in Kocaeli, and Taiwan earthquake. This paper investigates the response of inelastic steel structures to near-fault ground motions. The non-linear response of the 3, 6, and 12 steel MRF, and braced systems under seven near-fault ground motion was analyzed. The response results considered were maximum inter-story drift, story shear demand, coefficient of distortion and hysteresis curve. The effect of ratio of structure period over pulse period T/T P , on the response of the structures has been examined. It has been shown that this ratio is an important parameter, and may affect the response in different ways. It was found that based on comparison with the far-field ground motion, near-fault ground motion impose great demand on buildings designed according to codes and regulation that do not consider near-fault effects.