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SUMMARYThis paper extends previously developed models to account for the influence of the column and the foundation masses on the behavior of top-heavy deformable elastic cantilever columns rocking on a rigid support surface. Several models for energy dissipation at impact are examined and compared. A novel Vertical Velocity Energy Loss model is introduced. Rocking uplift and overturning spectra for the deformable elastic cantilever model excited by sinusoidal ground motions are constructed. The effects of non-dimensional model parameter variations on the rocking spectra and the overturning stability of the model are presented. It is shown that the remarkable overturning stability of dynamically excited large cantilever columns is not jeopardized by their deformability.

Summary An argument of engineers and researchers against the use of rocking as a seismic response modification technique is that the rocking motion of a structure is chaotic and the existing models are incapable of predicting it well. This argument is supported by the documented inability of rocking models to predict the motion of a specimen excited by a single ground motion. A statistical comparison of the experimental and the numerical responses of a rigid rocking oscillator not to a specific ground motion, but to ensembles of ground motions that have the same statistical properties, is presented. It is shown that the simple analytical model proposed by Housner in 1963 is capable of predicting the statistics of seismic response of a rigid rocking oscillator.

Summary In order to use rocking as a seismic response modification strategy along both directions of seismic excitation, a three‐dimensional (3D) rocking model should be developed. Since stepping or rolling rocking structural members out of their initial position is not a desirable performance, a rocking design should not involve these modes of motion. To this end, a model that takes the aforementioned constraint into account needs to be developed. This paper examines the 3D motion of a bounded rigid cylinder that is allowed to uplift and sustain rocking and wobbling (unsteady rolling) motion without sliding or rolling out of its initial position (i.e., a 3D inverted pendulum). Thus, the cylinder is constrained to zero residual displacement at the end of its 3D motion. This 3D dynamic model of the rocking rigid cylinder has two DOFs (three when damping is included), making it the simplest 3D extension of Housner's classical two‐dimensional (2D) rocking model. The development of models with and without damping is presented first. They are simple enough to perform extensive parametric analyses. Modes of motion of the cylinder are identified and presented. Then, 3D rocking and wobbling earthquake response spectra are constructed and compared with the classical 2D rocking earthquake response spectra. The 3D bounded rocking earthquake response spectra for the ground motions considered seem to have a very simple linear form. Finally, it is shown that the use of a 2D rocking model may lead to unacceptably unconservative estimates of the 3D rocking and wobbling seismic response. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.