| Abstract: | A dynamic analysis of elastic–viscoplastic systems, incorporating the modal co-ordinate transformation technique, is presented. The formulation results in uncoupled incremental equations of motion with respect to the modal co-ordinates. The elastic–viscoplastic model adopted allows the analysis not to involve yielding regions and loading/unloading processes. An implicit Runge–Kutta scheme together with the Newton–Raphson method are used to solve the non-linear constitutive equations. Stability and accuracy of the numerical solution are improved by utilizing a local time step sub-incrementing procedure. Applications of the analyses to multi-storey shear buildings show that good results can be obtained for the maximum displacement response by including only a few lower modes in the computation, but the prediction of the ductility factor response tends to underestimate the peak values when too few modes are used. In addition, stable and valid results can be obtained even with a sizable time step increment. |
