Effects of ground motion records with multiple velocity pulses on earthquake response of structures

Near-field ground motion records, which differ from far field ground motion records, may cause additional force and/or displacement demands on structures due to the velocity pulses they may contain. Many studies have revealed the destructive properties of near-field ground motion records. Based on recent studies, this study evaluates the demands that will arise in case of multiple velocity pulses in the near-field ground motion record in terms of the maximum inter-storey relative drift, which is one of the most frequently used engineering demand parameters. For this evaluation, nonlinear time-history analyzes of multi-degree of freedom systems were performed using mathematical functions representing single and multiple pulse near-field ground motions. The reason for using simple functions as ground motion records and simplified multi-degree of freedom systems as building models is to prevent the study results from being affected by the features of ground motions and structures that are not taken into account as parameters. The results obtained from the study showed that ground motion records containing multiple velocity pulses can have significant effects on structure behavior.