Floor Response Spectrum

Applies To

Product(s): STAAD.Pro

Version(s): All

Environment: N/A

Area: STAAD.Pro Technotes

Subarea: N/A

Original Author: Sudip Narayan Choudhury

(Not Completed Yet)

Introduction
Floor Response Spectrum constitutes the input data for the equipment analysis that might be sitting on a
framed structure – for example, a piece of machinery sitting on the floor of a building. If the equipment were
supported on the ground level, the ground acceleration spectra should have been used to analyse the
equipment. However, if the equipment was to rest on any particular floor of a building, the analysis of the
equipment would need the response spectra data for that floor, which would be considered as a base
excitation data for that equipment. This spectra data is also known as the Floor Response Spectra or the In-
structure Response Spectra. This data needs to be provided by the structural engineer.

Keeping this requirement in mind, the current versions of STAAD.Pro is equipped with performing a dynamic
analysis of the structure and generating a floor response spectrum.
 Theory
To generate the floor response spectrum, STAAD does a dual time history analysis.

The first time history analysis is for the building or the frame structure on which the equipment will be sitting
on. The program solves for the values of acceleration of all the nodes constituting the floor as a result of the
time history analysis. Thus we get the acceleration response in all directions over a range of time.

From the above data, the average acceleration of all the nodes in a particular direction over a range of time
is obtained. This forms the term a(t), which is considered as the base acceleration of the equipment in a
particular direction.

STAAD then performs a secondary time history analysis by solving the following base motion equation:

ϋ + 2βωύ + ω2 u = -a(t)

Here, β is the damping ratio and ω is the natural frequency of the SDOF system REPRESENTATIVE OF
THE EQUIPMENT.

Solving the above equation by varying the values of natural frequency and/or modal damping, we obtain the
values of acceleration of the SDOF mass for each values of frequency against time for one or multiple
damping values. Thus, we obtain the maximum absolute value of acceleration in a particular direction for a
particular value of frequency for a time range. The frequency-acceleration pair forms the floor response
spectra data for a particular damping value.

Input in STAAD to generate a Floor

Response Spectra
As is obvious from the theory above, STAAD would require that a primary time history analysis be performed
before it can generate a floor response spectra. So, the first step will be to specify the time history analysis
commands and the floor spectra generation command will follow subsequently. The following shows the
general order of specification of the commands.
->Time History Definition

->Time Load Application

->Floor Spectrum Generation

The command block to instruct the program to do a Floor Response Spectrum Generation is as below:

GENERATE FLOOR SPECTRUM

BEGIN FLOOR DIRECTION {GX | GY | GZ} (title)

{joint-group | joint-list}

OPTIONS { FLOW f1 | FHIGH f2 | FDELTA f3 | DAMP f4 | (RELATIVE) } (THPRINT i1) (SPRINT)

END FLOOR SPECTURM

The detailed explanation of the Floor Response Spectrum command block can be found in section 5.32.10.3
of the Technical Reference Manual.

The Floor Response Spectrum can also be specified from the Graphical User Interface from the
Analysis/Print Box.
 Floor Response Spectrum Output
The ANL file reports the generated spectrum for the equipment in the following format if SPRINT is specified
in the Floor Response Spectrum specification.

The terms reported with the associated output are described as below:

Max Value:

It reports the maximum average acceleration (in terms of g) of the nodes constituting the floor in the
specified time range in a particular direction.
If THPRINT is specified, the reported accelerations at various time points will have this value as the
maximum value.

Min Value:

It reports the minimum average acceleration (in terms of g) of the nodes constituting the floor in the specified
time range in a particular direction.

If THPRINT is specified, the reported accelerations at various time points will have this value as the
minimum value.

Fig – Sample Spectrum Output

Mean Value:

RMS Value:

Expected Frequency:

Point:
The points on the Floor Spectrum Curve. Each Point represents a Frequency-Acceleration pair of the SDOF
system representative of the equipment.

Frequency:

The Value of the Frequency in the Frequency-Acceleration pair.

Displacement:

The Spectral Displacement of the mass for the corresponding frequency.

Velocity:

The Spectral Velocity of the mass for the corresponding frequency.

Accel G:

The spectral value of acceleration (in terms of g) of the mass for the corresponding frequency.

PK Time (Accel):

The Time point at which the peak acceleration occurs.

Created by Suro
When: Wed, Feb 26 2014 5:19 AM

Last revision by Suro

When: Wed, Feb 26 2014 5:29 AM
Revisions: 2
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