A Response Spectrum Method for Base-Isolated Structures with Equivalent Base Excitations

Base isolation is an effective seismic design strategy that has received considerable attention in recent decades. This research is dedicated to developing a response spectrum method (RSM) for analysis of base-isolated structures under seismic excitation. A novel analytical model consisting of a linear superstructure under equivalent base excitations is proposed in the present study. To determine the response spectra corresponding to the base excitations, termed as the base response spectra, a sufficient number of samples of base excitations comprising base responses need to be obtained through time-history analysis of the nonlinear base-isolated structure in conjunction with the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). To improve the efficiency for each sample analysis, the recently proposed explicit time-domain method (ETDM) is utilized for fast analysis of the base acceleration and velocity responses with a dimension-reduced iteration scheme. Once the base response spectra are obtained, the mean peak values (MPVs) of structural responses of the linear superstructure can be conveniently evaluated through the complete quadratic combination (CQC) rule. A 4-story nonlinear base-isolated frame structure was analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed analytical model and the feasibility of the present approach for seismic response analysis of nonlinear base-isolated structures.