Evaluation of reduction factors for high-damping design response spectra

High-damping response spectra are essential tools for the assessment and design methods based on the equivalent elastic structure concept. They are also often used for the analysis and design of structures with seismic isolation or energy dissipation systems. Many formulations of the reduction factors have been proposed and included in seismic codes to estimate high-damping response spectra from their 5% damping representation. They are reviewed in the present paper. The accuracy of each of them in estimating the maximum elastic response of structures with viscous damping ratios greater than 5% is assessed by comparing exact and approximate displacement response spectra for three different damping levels, namely 10, 20 and 30%, respectively. The comparison is referred to more than 120 ground motion records, relevant to earthquakes with magnitude between 6 and 8, epicentral distance ranging from 1 to 100 km and Peak Ground Accelerations (PGA’s) greater than 0.1 g. The comparison between exact and approximate response spectra is carried out for both single earthquakes and groups of earthquakes with similar magnitude and epicentral distance. The drawbacks of using the same damping reduction factor to estimate both maximum displacement response and design seismic forces are also addressed.