Iterative Seismic Analysis of Primary-Secondary Systems

Keywords: Seismic Excitations, Newmark Method, Dynamic Structural Analysis, Iterative Methods, Primary-Secondary Systems, Time History, Coupled Systems, and Duhamel Integral Method.

Abstract: The accuracy and efficiency of different methods to obtain time histories of response of coupled systems subjected to seismic excitations are investigated. Both linear and nonlinear systems are considered. The Duhamel integral approach and the Newmark method are investigated for the composite system (i.e., without any subsystem analysis). Three different formulations of primary-secondary subsystem analysis are considered, and compared with the composite analyses. In each of these subsystem analysis methods, iteration is performed to find the solution to coupled subsystem equations. The mass coupled approach in which the subsystems are coupled only by inertia terms is an existing technique while the two stiffness coupled approaches are new to this study.