The dynamic response of coupled frame—wall systems to earthquake excitations

This paper presents a method for the analysis of the response of periodic frame—wall systems to earthquake excitations modelled as stationary random or evolutionary random processes. The transfer matrix required by the analysis, together with its powers is provided directly, thus avoiding calculation of the left and right-hand eigenvectors of the transfer matrix and eliminating computations for the evaluation of all its powers. It is shown how the method can be applied to structures that are only piecewise periodic and how results can be obtained for the static case. Finally, it is shown how the method may be used for both deterministic and probabilistic analyses.