Time-history seismic analysis with

SAP2000
A step-by-step guide for
BEng/MEng/MSc students familiarizing
with this piece of software

List of Content
Download recorded accelerograms from
the PEER database
Upload a selected accelerogram to
SAP2000
Run the time-history analysis and display
the results

Step #1

DOWNLOAD
ACCELEROGRAMS FROM
THE PEER DATABASE

PEER Strong Ground Motion

Database
The Pacific Earthquake
Engineering Research (PEER),
headquartered at the
University of California at
Berkeley, makes available
online over 10,000 strong
ground motion records from 173
different earthquakes
http://peer.berkeley.edu/

PEER Strong Ground Motion

Database
The database in entirely searchable
http://peer.berkeley.edu/nga/
As an example, we want to download the
accelerogram recorded during the Imperial
Valley 1940 earthquake
Once the event has been selected in the top drop-down
list, we must specify to DISPLAY the results In Table
rather than On Map
Then we can SEARCH

Find the accelerogram

By right-clicking on the appropriate record (NGA0006

in our case), a new page is shown with all the
relevant pieces of information about this seismic
event
If we scroll down, the links to the three components of the
accelerogram (180, 270 and vertical) appear

Download the time history of the

ground acceleration
By right-clicking on
one of these links (e.g.
the first horizontal
component, denote
with IMPVALL/IELC180), a new
textual page is opened
with the corresponding
time history of the
ground acceleration

Download the time history of the

ground acceleration

The first four lines contain general pieces of

information about the record, namely:

Location: Imperial Valley

Date: 19th May 1940
Time: 4:39am
Station: El Centro Array #9
Direction: Horizontal, 180
Units of acceleration: g= 9.81 m/s 2 (acceleration of gravity)
Number of time instants: 4,000
Sampling time: t= 0.01 s (f= 100 Hz)

Download the time history of the

ground acceleration
The other lines list the ordinates of the record
(in units of g), which must be read from left to
right, row by row

Download the time history of the

ground acceleration
Importantly, the
web browser
(Explorer, Firefox
and etcetera)
allows to save
this page as a
TXT file (you
may need to
manually
change the
extension)

Step #2

UPLOAD ACCELEROGRAMS
TO SAP2000

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

An accelerogram is basically the time-history of the
acceleration experienced by the ground in a given
direction during a seismic event
We need to input the accelerogram as a generic
function defined in SAP2000 starting from a TXT file
Once the mechanical model of the structural
system under investigation has been created,
SELECT from the menu bar:
DEFINE FUNCTIONS TIME HISTORIES...

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

The accelerogram
must be uploaded
to SAP2000 as
FUNCTION
FROM FILE, an
option which can
be selected from
the drop-down list

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

We can select:
Name of the function
(e.g.
EL_CENTRO_1940)
Location of the file
by using the button
BROWSE...
Number of lines to
skip (4 for the PEER
database)
Number of points
per line (5 for the
PEER database)

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

By clicking on
DISPLAY GRAPH
we can visually
check the
waveform

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

In order to be used in a seismic
simulation, the waveform previously
defined must be properly assigned to an
ANALYSIS CASE
To do this, SELECT from the menu bar:
DEFINE ANALYSIS CASES...

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

The analysis case in presence of accelerogram
is a TIME HISTORY, which can be selected
from a drop-down list after clicking on the
ADD NEW CASE... button

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

The appropriate
analysis in presence
of accelerograms is
a TIME HISTORY
case, which can be
selected from the
drop-down list

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

This leads to a
more
complicated
windows, in
which few
parameters must
be input

Define the accelerogram in SAP2000

In particular:
The load type is an ACCELeration of the ground (first drop-down list)
For a planar model, the ground shaking is generally assumed to happen in the X direction,
i.e. Load name U1 (seconddrop-down list)
The records from the PEER website are given in units of g, so the scale factor would be
9.81 m/s2 or 981 cm/s2, depending on the units selected in the model of SAP2000
The number of time steps should be given by the duration of the accelerogram divided by
the sampling time:
In our example: 40 s / 0.01 s = 4,000 steps

Step #3

RUN THE ANALYSIS AND

DISPLAY THE RESULTS

Run the dynamic analysis

Once the accelerogram has been defined in
SAP2000, it is possible to run the time-history
analysis as any other type of analysis

Run the dynamic analysis

Once the
analyses are
complete,
you can read
the pertinent
results from
tables and
diagrams

Display the results

In the next slides the results of the dynamic analysis
are shown in terms of:
Axial Force N (left-had side graph)
Bending Moment M (right-hand side graph)

It is worth mentioning that these blue diagrams are the

ENVELOPE of the corresponding outputs:
Indeed, in a dynamic analysis we have a value of the
structural quantities of interest (e.g. N and M) for each time
steps
As engineers, we are generally interested in both minimum
and maximum value, i.e. by the envelope of these
responses

Display the results

We can also display the same structural
quantities in a specific time instant, e.g. at t=
10 s...
In this case, for instance, the red colour in the axialforce diagram means compression, while the yellow
colour stands for tentions

Display the results

In order to show the time history of a
given structural response, e.g. The
horizontal displacement of the top floor,
you mus SELECT from the menu bar:
DISPLAY SHOW PLOT FUNCTIONS...

Display the results

In our example, we
want to display the
displacement along
the X direction of
the joint no. 23, for
the time range
from 0 to 40 s

Display the results

In the window with
the graph, min
and max values of
the selected time
history are also
reported