Application of Conditional Mean Spectrum in Nonlinear Response History Analysis of Tall Buildings on Soft Soil

The uniform hazard spectrum (UHS) and conditional mean spectrum (CMS) are commonly used as target spectra in selecting and scaling of records to be used in nonlinear response history analysis (NLRHA). When using CMS with tall buildings, CMS ground motions conditioned at multiple natural periods of the buildings should be considered. The application of CMS ground motions in NLRHA to estimate seismic demands for design of tall buildings located on soft-soil layers in Bangkok is investigated in this study. The seismic demands computed using multiple sets of CMS ground motions are compared with those computed using a single set of UHS spectral matching ground motions. Four existing tall buildings subjected to earthquake excitations in Bangkok were considered. The NLRHA was conducted using multiple sets of CMS ground motions, where periods of interest T were considered at the periods closest to the periods of the first-three translational modes of the building in the direction of excitation. It was found that CMS ground motions conditioned at the higher-mode periods result in larger force demands than CMS ground motions conditioned at the fundamental period for some locations along the height of the building. The envelope of demands obtained by using multiple sets of CMS ground motions conditioned at different periods should be used in design but requires significant computational effort. Using UHS spectral matching ground motions can provide results close to such an envelope and reduce the computational effort significantly.