An-Najah Staff

Two methods are usually available for designing structures subjected to seismic loads. They are equivalent static load method and dynamic analysis method. The dynamic method of analysis is not widely used, but it may be necessary for important structures. Dynamic analysis usually has three phases, defining the expected source of earthquake, evaluating ground surface response spectra taking into account local soil properties, and applying response spectra to proposed structure to evaluate seismic forces. In this paper, the first two phases are discussed. The recent methods in evaluating the ground response that take into account soil properties are presented. This includes sources of earthquakes in Palestine and their characteristics such as earthquake magnitude, predominant period, maximum acceleration, and duration. Furthermore, this paper presents a case study for evaluating ground response spectra using computer program called Shake that may be used to evaluate ground response in Palestine. Key Words: Dynamic Analysis, Earthquakes, Ground Response, Palestine, Shake.