Wavelet Analysis for Processing of Earthquake Records

This study investigates a time-domain method for modeling general transient elastodynamic problems using the spectral-based finite element method (SEM) which is based upon a conforming mesh of two-dimensional quadrilaterals. Employing the Galerkin weighted residual method, detailed formulation of the SEM is derived in which various aspects involving in elastodynamic problems are discussed. The accuracy and efficiency of the method is fully demonstrated by comparing results obtained from the SEM with thosereported in other studies. For this purpose, a set of wave propagation and structural dynamic problems, subjected to various load forms such as triangular load, Heaviside step load, sinusoidal impulsive load, and ramped load are modeled using the SEM. Furthermore,support motion boundary conditions are examined using the SEM. Each problem issuccessfully modeled using a very small number of degrees of freedom in comparison withother numerical methods. The numerical results agree very well with the analytical solutions as well the results from other numerical methods.