Slepian Approach to a Gaussian Excited Elasto-Plastic Frame Including Geometric Nonlinearity

Taking geometric non-linearity into account, an oscillator inthe form of a portal frame with a rigid traverse and withideal-elastic-ideal-plastic clamped-in columns behaves under horizontalexcitation as an ideal-elastic-hardening/softening-plastic oscillatorgiven that the columns carry a tension/compression axial force. Assumingthat the horizontal excitation of the traverse is Gaussian white noise,statistics related to the plastic displacement response are determinedby use of simulation based on the Slepian model process method combinedwith envelope excursion properties. Besides giving a physical insight,the method gives good approximations to results obtained by slow directsimulation of the total response. Moreover, the influence of a randomlyvarying axial column force is investigated by direct responsesimulation. This case corresponds to parametric excitation as generatedby the vertical acceleration component in an earthquake.