Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Short Term Course on Strctural Dynamics & Seismic Design
13th 18th December 2004 under NPEEE
TEST
Date:18th December 2004

Time: 90 min
1.

What is the design philosophy behind the current design code of practice?

2.

Why is the detailing in R/C structure so important? Will it increase the strength to
resist the design earthquake?

3.

Select one plan irregularity, one vertical irregularity, and explain conceptually why
such irregularity affects adversely the seismic response of the structure.

4.

For a dual system with R/C MRF and shear wall, why do we have to make MRF take
at least 25% total lateral load? Describe what might happen to the system during a
strong earthquake.

5.

For each of the following structures, as shown in elevation, plan,

(a) Evaluate the structure, and point out any potential problem(s), if any, that might
have adverse effect on its seismic performance, and explain briefly why you think
so;
(b) Recommend change(s) for identified problem(s).

7. What is the main difference between magnitude and intensity of an earthquake?

8. What are the major parameters in seismicity that a structural engineer needs to know to
design a structure against earthquake hazard? How can we get them?

9. What kind of body waves is more conspicuous on the horizontal components of ground
motion?
10. As the magnitude of an earthquake increases, which increases faster: peak acceleration or
peak displacement?
11. Which is a better way to recognize a large earthquake when you feel it at short distances:
by larger accelerations, or by long duration of sinking?
12. Why is it important to study the earthquake damage during an earthquake?
13. What are the main causes of damage to reinforced concrete buildings?
14. What is the philosophy of estimating earthquake load on a building?
15. What are the various methods of design for an earthquake forces?
16. In the code IS 1893 (Part 1): 2002, explain the various terms in Ah and how these are
determined.
Z Sa I
Ah
2 g R
17. What do you understand by the term critical damping ratio?
18. What is logarithmic decrement?
19. Define the term resonant frequency.
20. What is dynamic amplification factor?
21. What is the fundamental frequency of a system?
22. The pseudo velocity response of the expected ground motion at a site is flat in the range
of periods from 0.1sec to 10sec. For a structure with period 2.5sec, which of the
following type of ground motion is more critical?
a) acceleration
b) velocity
c) displacement
d) none of the above
23. The RC buildings designed according to low seismic coefficients of code survive in
earthquake because of (tick two correct answers)
a) over strength of building
b) ductility provisions in building elements
c) because of presence of infill walls
d) because of structure founded on raft/pile foundation
24. What are the objectives of structural response measurements in earthquake?
25. State at least three merits of 3D modeling over 2D modeling of RC buildings.

26. Ground acceleration due to large or moderate earthquake at large distances will be
a) of short duration
b) rich in low frequencies
c) rich in high frequencies
d) none of the above
27. Consider an accelerogram with associated velocity and displacement record. These three
motions
a) govern design in same frequency band
b) govern design in different frequency band
c) none of the above
28. Elastic force developed in a single freedom system is
a) proportional to pseudo relative velocity response
b) proportional to absolute acceleration response
c) proportional to pseudo acceleration response
d) none of the above
29. The maximum displacement of a SDOF system in free vibration is decreased to one half
its initial value in 15 cycles. Assuming the damping is of viscous type,
a) Evaluate the damping factor of the system, .
b) Repeat this problem considering that the reduction to the reduction to the
50% level occurs in (i) 10 cycles, (ii) 5 cycles, (iii) 2 cycles and (iv) a single
cycle. Summarize the results by plotting the number of cycles as a function
of .
30. A SDF system consisting of a weight, spring and the friction device is shown in Fig.3.
This device slips at a force equal to 10% of the weight and the natural vibration period of
the system 0.25 s. if this system is given an initial displacement of 60 mm and released,
what will be the displacement amplitude after five cycles? In how many cycles will the
system come to rest?
31. Magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of:
(a) Damage
(b) Energy
(c) Acceleration
(d) Force
32. Intensity of an earthquake __________ with distance from the epicenter:
(a) Increases
(b) Remains constant
(c) Decreases
(d) Fluctuates
33. Seismic hazard is highest in:
(a) Western India
(b) Delhi Region
(c) Andaman-Nicobar Island
(d) Gujarat

34. Consider the following statements concerning the natural frequencies of linear vibrating
systems.
(a) Natural frequencies are dependent on boundary conditions of the structure
(b) A structure can have more than one natural frequency
(c) Natural frequencies depend upon the external forces acting on the structure
(d) Natural frequencies are independent of initial conditions
With reference to the above statements, which of the following conclusions would you
accept?
(A) all of the above statements are true
(B) (a), (b), and (d) are true but (c) is false
(C) (a), (c), and (d) are true but (b) is false
(D) (a) is false and (b), (c) and (d) are true
35. Indicate if the following statements are true or false
(a) The orthogonality of mode shapes with respect to the mass matrix implies that
M is a diagonal matrix whose diagonal elements are square of the natural
frequencies
(b) The SRSS and CQC rules lead to identical results
(c) Different parts of built-up structures can have different natural frequencies
36. The seismic weight is defined as _______________
(a) DL only
(b) LL only
(c) DL + full LL
(d) DL + Part of LL
37. Under reinforced concrete beams are ___________ductile than over reinforced concrete
beams
(a) Always more
(b) Less
(c) Equally
(d) Not always more
38. Response spectrum is a plot of ________________
(a) Maximum Response vs. period
(b) Min. response vs period
(c) Response vs time
(d) Response at any time vs period
39. During an earthquake asymmetry in plan of a structure causes torsion of the building
about a __________
(a) Horizontal axis
(b) Vertical axis
(c) An inclined axis
(d) All of the above
40. Confinement of the compression zone of concrete improves_____________
(a) The ultimate (crushing) strain of concrete
(b) Yield strain of steel
(c) Stiffness

(d) None of the above

41. Detailing of coupled beam is one connecting a shear wall to a connecting beam so as to:
(a) Control the flexural response
(b) Diagonal cracking is very low
(c) Neither of the above
(d) All of the above (a,b)
42. State true or false
(a) Stiff structures are better (have lower response) in short periods
(b) Flexible structures give higher response in long period sites
(c) Ductility is easier to design for in stiff structures than in flexible structures
(d) Good design practice demands that not only should the probability of failure be
minimized through provision of minimum strength but also prevention of
undesirable modes of failure modes
43. For constant damping, when the structure goes into the elastic range, for increase in
ductility, strength demand ___________?
(a) Increases
(b) Decreases
(c) Remains unchanged
44. Increasing ductility by way of adding stirrups and good detailing for bond & anchorage is
done at ___________?
(a) Beam-Column Joint
(b) At potential plastic hinge locations in beams and columns
(c) At rebar lap locations
(d) All of the above (a,b,c)
(e) None of the above
45. RC shaft support of elevated water tanks fail by flexural cracking in ________?
(a)
Botton 1/3rd
(b)
Middle 1/3rd
(c)
Top 1/3rd
46. State true or false:
(a) Vertical components dominate the response for an intermediate range of seismic
event
(b) Far field seismic events lead to high strain rates of loading
(c) Plastic hinge accumulation is due to far field ground motion
47. Seismic response of a structure depends on the dynamic feature of :
(a) Damage accumulation at a plastic hinge and fracture
(b) Seismic action-velocity amplitude and strain rate
(c) Effect of cyclic loading
(d) All of the above (a,b,c)
(e) None of the above
48. Pseudo acceleration is _________ max. relative displacement.

3
(c)
2
(d)
/2
where = natural frequency, rad/s
(b)

49. Ductility factor is another name for

(a) Elastic stiffness
(b) Yield displacement
(c) Ratio of max. post yield displacement to yield displacement
(d) Max. displacement
50. If the natural frequencies of the building lie below the range of frequencies of the
earthquake ground motion, the behavior of the building will be__________