Response Spectrum Methods in Earthquake Engineering 

Armen Der Kiureghian, P.E., NAE, F.EMI, M.ASCE 
President Emeritus
American University of Armenia
Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus
University of California, Berkeley 
  

Abstract

The presentation will provide the random vibrations bases for the commonly used response spectrum method in earthquake engineering. The presentation will start with a description of the widely used CQC modal combination rule that is included in most design codes. The assumptions behind this method and its limitations will be described. The presentation will then focus on extensions of the CQC rule to (a) structures with high-frequency modes, (b) estimation of total floor acceleration, (c) multicomponent ground motions, (d) vector-valued responses, (e) multi-support excitations, (f) non-classically damped structures, and (g) generation of floor response spectra. Example applications in each case will be presented.

Biography

Armen Der Kiureghian is President Emeritus of the American University of Armenia and Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley. He received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Tehran University, Iran, and his PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. His teaching and research are in the areas of risk and reliability of constructed facilities, stochastic structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, and engineering decision making. He has authored more than 400 publications, including over 130 archival journal papers and three books, including Structural & System Reliability by the Oxford University Press. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal, Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, and George Winter Medal, and the Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association’s CRRRA Award. For his efforts in co-founding the American University of Armenia, he was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by the Government of Armenia and the Saint Sahak-Saint Mesrob Medal by His Holiness Garegin II, Catholicos of All Armenians. Der Kiureghian is a Distinguished Alumnus of both Tehran University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an elected foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.