Response of Damped Oscillators to Cycloidal Pulses

In this paper, the transient response of a damped oscillator subjected to cycloidal pulses is investigated. The response is computed analytically by considering viscous and friction damping, and response spectra for relative and absolute quantities are presented for the linear viscous and sliding oscillator. The study complements the list of numerous shock spectra mostly published for the undamped linear oscillator. Subsequently, a numerical procedure based on a state-space formulation is developed to compute the response of damped oscillators when subjected to ground motions recorded near the source of strong earthquakes. It is found that although in several occasions such motions resemble to cycloidal pulses, the response of structures with low to moderate periods is substantially affected by the high-frequency fluctuations that often override the long duration pulse.