Generalized Masing Approach to Modeling Hysteretic Deteriorating Behavior

Abstract

The modeling of hysteretic behavior is of significant importance in several areas, including civil engineering and mechanics. This paper focuses on finding a method for modeling hysteretic behavior that is simple and efficient in terms of capturing the response and retaining the memory, if any, and at the same time is proper for use in physically meaningful modeling and identification of the system with few parameters. A distributed-element model (DEM) capable of capturing deterioration is used as a starting point, and its characteristics are studied, with a particular focus on the way memory is stored in the model. It is observed that keeping track of the response at a few of the past extremes of input displacement, called the Sequence of Dominant Alternating Extremes, is enough for representing the effect of history. The relation of this behavior to a generalized Masing model is studied. A set of rules is proposed which is a generalization of the Masing rules and can capture the deteriorating (or nondeteriorating) response of DEMs with any distribution of element yield displacement thresholds to any arbitrary loading. The presented formulation provides a framework for efficient modeling and identification of dynamic models of very different characteristics with only a few physically meaningful parameters.