Inelastic Structural Response to Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes
The effects of postulated Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes on inelastic structural response are examined. The earthquakes considered ranged in size from those previously recorded to the largest plausible event, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake. Artificial acceleration records were generated and used as input for inelastic response history analyses of single-degree-of-freedom systems with bilinear or degrading stiffness hysteretic relationships. The results indicate that the maximum displacements are not significantly greater than those produced by previously recorded events. The inelastic energy dissipated and the numbers of displacement cycles are somewhat greater for the largest events, although the energy demands and the cyclic displacement demands are similar to those from the recorded events for magnitudes up to 8.5.