Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of spectral shape on damping modification factors eta used in equivalent static and response spectrum analyses of structures with damping ratios that are different from 5% critical damping. Record-to-record variability of eta is also evaluated through a statistical analysis of 5270 ground motions records from 1137 interface earthquakes recorded in Chile. The effect of spectral shape is studied using recently developed spectral shape metrics SaRatio and epsilon (epsilon) and evaluating their use as possible predictors for eta. Similarly to previous investigations, this article also examines the effect of oscillator period, earthquake magnitude, and earthquake duration for different levels of damping ratio. Results suggest that SaRatio is an effective predictor of eta, particularly for highly damped structures. However, results also indicate that for rock and firm sites, earthquake faulting mechanism and site class do not have a significant influence on eta. A simple period-independent regression model for h as a function of SaRatio and damping ratio is proposed. A comparison between median h from this study and those in current Chilean seismic codes shows that code factors are unconservative.