Tall Buildings under Five-Component Earthquakes

In design, earthquakes are often idealized as having a single horizontal component which can act in two orthogonal directions. The present note examines the influence of other components. Free-field motion is taken as having two horizontal translational and three rotational components and is averaged over the building.s base. Soil-structure interaction is otherwise ignored. Vertical translation is not dealt with because the present building idealization does not lend itself. In the absence of adequate records, ground motion is assumed to coincide with theoretical solutions for regular homogeneous formations. The building is idealized as linear, uniform, and admitting shearing and torsional deformations.