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SUMMARYThis paper presents a physically motivated model for the gross dynamic behaviour of degrading hysteretic structures subjected to damaging earthquake motions. The model is intended to provide a vehicle for gaining insight into the nature of the non-linear response of such structures and to be used in system identification studies. A concept is presented for identifying the model parameters based on examination of the gross restoring force characteristic of a real structure. The model is applied to data from two damaged structures: the Bank of California building in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the Imperial County Services building in the 1979 Imperial County earthquake.

This paper presents a general modeling technique for following the evolution of the stress field during the manufacturing of multilevel structures. This technique combines the finite element method with a modeling strategy that uses artificial nodes to simulate material interfaces. It can be applied to both linear and nonlinear structures. The main advantage of this approach is that it allows one to account For all topological and geometric changes during the manufacturing process, as well as the residual stresses introduced at each stage. Its implementation is very straightforward since it is compatible with current finite element technology and most commercial codes. The usefulness of this technique is illustrated with an example concerning an encapsulated copper line.

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