ABSTRACT
The recording of large, destructive pulses in earthquake ground motions has prompted the development of simple mathematical models for the pulses and the study of the responses of simple structures to such motions. In this paper, the responses of a single degree of freedom structure to delta function pulses, to one and two-lobe sinusoidal acceleration pulses, and to one and two-lobe sinusoidal velocity pulses are re-examined and compared in the context of using the pulses to model strong ground motion. The response to pulses of strong ground motion proves to be different in significant ways from the response to longer, broadband earthquake excitation and is more complex than one might expect. For example, the maximum displacements caused by sinusoidal acceleration and velocity pulses are often not experienced by structures with the same frequencies as the pulse, but by structures with lower natural frequencies.
