Department of Civil Engineering

Program name:
INSPECT

COMPUTER PROGRAM LIBRARY

Program type:
Response Spectrum Analysis

Author:
Athol J Carr

Program code:
ANSI Fortran77
Date:
September 27, 2011

INSPECT
In-elastic Response Spectra Computation

Copyright \ Athol J. Carr, University of Canterbury, 2002-2011. All Rights reserved.

1

Purpose
This program is designed to compute and plot the inelastic response spectra for an input earthquake
accelerogram and for most of the hysteresis rules available in the program RUAUMOKO . The program
computes the Spectral Displacement, the Spectral Acceleration, the yield force spectrum, the elastic and
plastic work as well as the residual displacement spectra for the given The output is both tabular and
graphical. The input formats for the accelerograms are the same as those formats accepted by the program
RUAUMOKO.
Method of Analysis
The program asks for information on the range of natural periods, period interval and damping ratios before
reading and digitizing the accelerogram. It then, for each ductility ratio, computes the responses of single
degree of freedom in-elastic oscillators where the natural period of free vibration is varied over the period
range specified. The program iterates with the choice of yield force, up to 200 cycles, to obtain the target
ductility values.
Running the program INSPECT.
To run the program call the program by the method appropriate to your operating system. On a personal
computer just type INSPECT assuming that the files INSPECT.EXE and FQWIN .HLP are in your current
directory or path.
In Microsoft Windows operating systems another option is to create a shortcut on the desktop and for this
purpose a suitable icon for INSPECT, Inspect.ico, is supplied with the program.
The program prompts for responses to a series of questions. Default responses, where appropriate, are
enclosed in square brackets, [ ]. File names must match the conventions of your operating system but file
names, with paths where necessary, must not exceed 60 characters in length and must not contain blank
characters.
The first question asks for the name of the output file. The default is the computer console or terminal
screen. This is normally the response for most users, however if an output file is created then the envelope
values of each graph line drawn is also output to that file.
The second question is whether the user wishes to create an ASCII post-processor file as well as the
conventional output file. This file, if it is output, has for each ductility a line for each natural period which
contains the program graph output data:
The natural period,
The maximum displacement
The maximum acceleration
Elastic Energy
Plastic work
Yield force to give the required ductility.
Residual displacement.
Ductility Match
Reduction Ratio (seismic coefficient as a function of the elastic acceleration spectra)
The default answer is No. If the answer is Yes, then the user is prompted for the file name, the default
having the same name as the output file but with the extension .SAS
The next question is for the name of the input earthquake accelerogram. This data is the same as asked for
by SPECTRA. If the accelerogram does not have time-acceleration pairs of data as in the Caltech, NCEER,
CSMIP and PEER format accelerogram the user is prompted for the accelerogram time-step deltat. The
user is then prompted for the accelerogram scale factor ascale required to convert the accelerations to the
acceleration of gravity. The final question is the line number istart at which the record is to start. The
default value is line 1.
The program will then prompt for the first line of the data file. If this already exists then one may respond
with
$add <datafilename>
or the user may supply the data as requested by each prompt. The data is described in the following
sections.

To get hard copies of the plots.

In Microsoft Windows operating systems, to get hard copies of the displayed graphs use the pull down file
menu and select the Print or Save options to send the graph to the printer or to save the plot as a bitmap
file (.bmp). If the plot is to be sent directly to the printer it is recommended that landscape be the chosen
orientation and unless a colour printer is being used then the graphics option should have been
monochromatic and not colour.
On a Microsoft Windows operating system the bitmap plots can be converted to jpeg files (.jpg) by opening
the bitmap file in Microsoft Paint (right-click on file name and select open with and then select Paint).
When In Paint select Save As option and select file type jpeg. The resulting jpeg files are a fraction of the
size of the bitmap files.
On unix operating systems using the GKS graphics system select the Hard-copy option from the Choice
window.

Input data for INSPECT.

All data for INSPECT is prompted for by the program using the TinyCLIP command processor. For help on
the input data or on the use of the INSPECT program type HELP or ? at any prompt. To get help on the
command processor type $HELP at any prompt.
Note: In the following user guide, each line of required data is indicated by a box containing the data items.
Below each box is a description of the data items. The data items on each line may be separated by
commas or blank spaces. The format for the items are indicated by the letter at the end of each descriptive
line with A indicating a character string, I indicating an integer value and F indicating a floating point
number. A floating point number may or may not have a decimal point and may also take a scientific or
exponent form such as 1.5E6 which could also be expressed as 1500000.0. Character strings will be uppercased unless enclosed in double or single quotes and will terminate at the first blank space unless the string
is enclosed in quotes.

Output File name. (Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

NAME

NAME

Output file name (including path if necessary). Maximum 60 characters

The default name is SCREEN which means that output is only put to the output screen and no electronic
copy is made. The name will be upper-cased and will terminate at the first blank character unless the name
(and path) is enclosed in quotes (single or double ). On Windows systems an extension .wri (WordPad)
or .txt (NotePad) extension is recommended

Secondary output file. (Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

SAS

SAZ

SAS
SAZ

Yes/No
Yes/No

Is a secondary output text file required?

Is a Tracinf output text file required?

(default= No)
(default= No)

A
A

This file contains the output from the program with all data for a given ductility arranged in columns that
may be easily input to a spreadsheet ..
If SAZ is Yes then you are later prompted for the period at which the displacement, acceleration and force
are recorded, plotted and a hysteresis plot is also made. The three time-history values are output in the
SAZ file
2a

SAS file name. (Only if SAS in line 2 above is Y or YES)

(Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

SASNAME

SASNAME

Output file name (including path if necessary). Maximum 60 characters

The default name is the same as that of the output file in part 1 but with the extension .SAS. The default
name will be over-ridden by any supplied name.

2b

SAZ file name. (Only if SAZ in line 2 above is Y or YES)

(Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

SAZNAME

SAZNAME

Output file name (including path if necessary). Maximum 60 characters

The default name is the same as that of the output file in part 1 but with the extension .SAZ. The default
name will be over-ridden by any supplied name.

Earthquake Accelerogram name (Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

EQNAME

EQNAME

File name (including path if necessary) for earthquake accelerogram file

Maximum 60 characters

The name will be upper-cased and will terminate at the first blank character unless the name (and path) is
enclosed in quotes (single or double ) This must be one of the standard formats, BERG, CALTECH,
NCEER, FREE, CSMIP, EXCEL, PEER or SAC as used by Ruaumoko.
The program recognizes the following file extensions as denoting the following accelerogram formats:
.eqb
Berg format records
.eqc
Caltech format records
.eqn
NCEER format records
.eqf
Free format records
.eqs
CSMIP format records
.eqe
EXCEL format records
.eqp
PEER format records
.eqk
SAC format records
For details of the formats see the section on accelerogram later in the manual

3a

Earthquake Accelerogram File Type (only if file type is not recognized from the file extension)
(Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

TYPE

TYPE

B or Berg
C or Caltech
N or Nceer
F or Free
S or CSmip
E or Excel
P or Peer
K or SAc

Berg format record

Caltech format record
NCEER format record
Free format record
CSMIP format record
Excel format record
PEER format record
SAC format record

The TYPE may upper or lower case and sufficient latters supplied to be distinctive (ie.C or CS above)
.

4.

Earthquake Accelerogram DELTAT (only if file type is not Berg, Free or Excel Format above)
(Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

DELTAT

DELTAT

Time-step at which accelerogram is digitized

The default answer is that most commonly used for that type record.
CALTECH Format records the record time-interval (usually 0.025, 0.02, 0.01 or 0.005 seconds)
NCEER Format records the record time-interval
(usually 0.02 seconds.)
(Note NZ GNS records are at 0.005 seconds)
CSMIP Format records the record time-interval
(usually 0.02 seconds)
PEER Format records the record time-interval
(usually 0.004 seconds)
SAC Format records the record time-interval
(usually 0.020 seconds)

5.

Earthquake Accelerogram scale factor ASCALE (only if file type is not Berg, Free or Excel Format)
(Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

ASCALE

ASCALE

Scale factor (Divisor to convert to fractions of acceleration of gravity g )

The default answer is that most commonly used for that type record.
Divisor ASCALE is required to convert the accelerogram to the units of the acceleration of gravity. For
example, if the acceleration record is in units of cm/sec/sec the ASCALE is 981 If the acceleration record is
already in the units of the acceleration of gravity the ASCALE is 1.0 unless the user also wishes to scale the
record to some other magnitude.
BERG, FREE or EXCEL Format records omit or set equal to 1.0
CALTECH records are usually in units of acceleration multiplied by a constant as the F6.0 format is usually
an Integer I6 format and the decimal point is missing with about 5 integer digits for the largest numbers.
The values must be converted units of the acceleration of gravity .
If the record is in the units of mm/sec/sec and if g = 9.81 m/sec/sec. then ASCALE = 9810.0.
NCEER and CSMIP records are usually in cm/sec/sec and ASCALE = 981.0 to bring the record to units of
the acceleration of gravity. (Note, NZ GNS records are in mm/sec/sec so ASCALE = 9810.0)

First line in record to start ISTART (Not used in Batch mode, as this is part of the command line)

ISTART

ISTART

First line in record to start calculuation (Default =1)

The user is also prompted for which line, ISTART, in the earthquake accelerogram record the analysis is to
start. The default value is 1, i.e. the record starts at the first line of the data but in some cases, particularly
where the input is a recorded shake-table record there may be a long lead-in with very little happening, i.e.
between switching on the recording equipment and the start of the shake-table motion , and this gives a
means of omitting this from the calculations.

7.

Hysteresis Choice

IHYST

IHYST
Note:

8.

Hysteresis Rule choice, see RUAUMOKO manuals for choices

That Rules 22 and 24 cannot be run from INSPECT

Bi-linear factor or Ramberg-Osgood r factor. Only if IHYST is greater than 1.

Bi-linear factor or Ramberg-Osgood r factor

9.

Strength degradation Choice

ILOS

ILOS

=0
=1
=2
=3

No strength degradation
Strength reduction in each direction based on ductility in that direction
Strength reduction based on number of inelastic cycles
Strength reduction based on maximum ductility

10.

Strength Degradation Parameters (only if ILOS greater than 0, see Appendix A in RUAUMOKO
manuals). (only if rules allow degradation see Appendix B in RUAUMOKO manuals)

11.

Hysteresis Parameters (Only if IHYST greater than 0 and only if the hysteresis rule required further
data, see Appendix B) Note that nay forces, such as cracking forces, are taken as a fraction of the
yield force and any displacements are taken as a fraction of the yield displacement.

Some hysteresis rules will require extra data, (For required data description please see Appendix B of
Ruaumoko manuals)
for example
.
11a IHYST = 33
Masonry Strut

LENGTH

LENGTH

Strut Length

12.

Number of Ductilities

ND TOL PDELTA IOP

ND
TOL
PDELTA
IOP

13.

Number of extra Ductilities. (1 # ND # 5) The first ductility is elastic = 1.0

% Convergence tolerance for ductility match. (0.1% # TOL # 10.0%)
(If left blank or 0.0 supplied then Default = 0.5%)
No or blank, P-Delta effects are not included
Yes, P-Delta effects are included
= 0 or blank: Exponential function used for ducitility convergence (Default)
= 1; Linear interpolation used for ductility convergence (problematic)
= 2; Binary Chop procedure used for ductility convergence.

I
F
A
I

Ductility Ratios. (ND numbers)

D2 D3 D4 D5 D6

Di

Ductility ratios

Note:

14.

L
P

The first ductility value D1 is always 1.0 (elastic)

The default value of D2
if ND = 1 is 2.0
The default values of D2 and D3
if ND = 2 are 2.0 and 4.0
The default values of D2, D3 and D4
if ND = 3 are 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0
The default values of D2, D3, D4 and D5
if ND = 4 are 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0
The default values of D2, D3, D4, D5 and D6 if ND = 5 are 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0

Length and Weight. (Only if PDELTA on line 6 above is Y or YES)

Column Length
Vertical Load on Column

F
F

Note: if either L or P is less than or equal to zero then the PDelta option is reset to NO

14.

% Damping ratio.

DAMP IDAMP KAPPA

DAMP
IDAMP

KAPPA

Note:

15.

% damping ratio
0 = ; (or blank) Constant Damping coefficient retains initial elastic value (Default)
1 = ; Secant Damping Ratio remains constant
2 = ; Tangent Damping Ratio remains Constant
3 = ; Rayleigh Secant Damping using Tangent Stiffness
4 = ; Rayleigh Tangent damping using Tangent Stiffness
Fraction of Rayleigh Damping from Mass term (Constant contribtion) (0.0 to 1.0)
(Only used for IDAMP = 3 or 4)

F
I

Secant Damping means that damping force = Damping*velocity

Tangent Damping means that the increment of the damping force = damping*increment in
velocity

Number of Natural Periods of Free-Vibration.

NP

NP

16.

Number of Natural periods of free vibration (Default=100, Maximum=500)

Natural Period of Free-vibration Step. (Seconds).

DPE

DPE

17.

Natural period of free-vibration step (seconds)

Accelerogram Integration Time-step. (Seconds)

DT

DT

Integration time step (seconds)

(Default = Minm ( 0.01 seconds, DPE/10, DELTAT)

18.

Duration of Integration. (Seconds)

TIME

TIME

Duration of integration (seconds)

Note: If the duration exceeds the length of the accelerogram then the remaining part of the integration is
free-vibration.

19

Duration of Free Vibration following Earthquake Integration. (Seconds)

FREE

FREE

Duration of free vibration following earthquake integration (seconds)

Note: This is only of significance if there is any likelihood that the systems are still non-linear at the end of
the earthquake integration duration or if accurate residual displacements are required.

20.

Acceleration of Gravity.

GRAV

GRAV

Acceleration of gravity (Default = 9.81)

20a. Trace Period. (Only if SAZ is Y, YE or YES)

NTRACE

NTRACE

21.

Period number at which trace information is saved and plotted (Default = 21)
The period is (NTRACE-1) times the period step DPE. If DPE is 0.05
seconds and NTRACE is 21 then the data is stored for the 1 second period

Are graphs to be plotted. (Not used in Batch mode)

IPLOT

IPLOT

Graphs plotted (Yes/No, the default is Yes)

10

22.

Earthquake Title. Only if IPLOT is Yes. (Not used in Batch mode)

TITLE

TITLE
Note:

23.

Title for graphs. Maximum of 30 characters

If the title contains blank characters or the case is to be maintained then enclose the title in
single or double quotation marks.

Graph Scale factors. Only if IPLOT is Yes. (Not used in Batch mode)

SD SA SE SP YF RD

SD
SA
SE
SP
YF
RD

Maximum
Maximum
Maximum
Maximum
Maximum
Maximum

value for Spectral

value for Spectral
value for Spectral
value for Spectral
value for Spectral
value for Spectral

Displacement
Acceleration
Elastic Work
Plastic Work
Yield Force
Residual Displacement

Note:

If zero values are supplied then an automatic scaling is used for the plots.

24.

Number of Grid Lines up the Plots. Only if IPLOT is Yes. (Not used in Batch mode)

F
F
F
F
F
F

NG

NG

Number of grid spaces in the vertical axis in the spectra plots. (Default = 5)

11

Accelerogram Data
a.

Accelerogram flag.

One input line with the word STAR, START or DATA: (the colon is mandatory) starting in column 1 and the
word must be in upper case. This START line may be preceded by as many header lines as desired. This
START line is not used for PEER or SAC format records as these records start with a fixed 4 or 2 lines of
header information respectively.

START

b.

Accelerogram

The remainder of the input is the acceleration record itself. The record is in the form of a series of lines each
of which starts with a Line Sequence Number (which must be in an ascending order) followed by either (i) a
group of 4 or 1 successive time-acceleration points (BERG, FREE or EXCEL Format), or (ii) a sequence of
10, 8 or 4 uniformly spaced acceleration values at DELTAT time intervals apart, the (CALTECH, NCEER,
CSMIP, PEER or SAC Formats).
Note that the NCEER, CSMIP, EXCEL, PEER or SAC records do not have a sequence number. The
analysis acceleration record will begin at the first time on or implied by the beginning of the accelerogram
line ISTART and there must then be sufficient lines remaining to span the analysis time-history length TR.
The record must be on one of the following formats depending on the value of IBERG provided in the earlier
data. The FORTRAN format is provided in parentheses for each case.
The I3 format implies 3 characters for the number which is right justified, 6X implies 6 blank characters.
The F8.4 implies 8 characters for the number and if omitted the decimal point is located in front of the 4th to
last character in the 8 character set which is assume to be right justified, if the decimal point is provided the
number may be located anywhere in the 8 character space. A number preceding the format, i.e. 10F8.4
means that there are 10 numbers each having an 8 character field. Each format starts on a new line.

(1)

BERG FORMAT (I3,4(F8.4,F9.6))

(Default filename extension is .eqb)

ISEQ T1 G1 T2 G2 T3 G3 T4 G4

ISEG
Ti
Gi

Line sequence number

Time of point on accelerogram (seconds)
Acceleration (decimal fraction of gravity)

If the line sequence number is greater than 999 it is not read or checked by the program.

12

I3
F 8.4
F 9.6

(2)

CALTECH FORMAT
.eqc)

(I4,6X,10F6.0) or more precisely (I4,6X,10I6)(Default filename extension is

ISEQ G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10

ISEQ
Gi

Line sequence number

Acceleration (multiplied by ASCALE) at intervals of DELTAT

I4
I6

If the line sequence number is greater than 9999 it is not read or checked by the program.

(3)

NCEER FORMAT (10F8.2)

(Default filename extension is .eqn)

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10

Gi

(4)

Acceleration (multiplied by ASCALE) at intervals of DELTAT

FREE FORMAT ( * )

F 8.2

(Default filename extension is .eqf)

ISEQ T1 G1

ISEQ
T1
G1

Line sequence number

Time of point on accelerogram (seconds)
Acceleration (decimal fraction of gravity)

I
F
F

The three items may be placed anywhere on the line and separated by at least one blank column. The lines
must be in consecutive order with ISEQ starting at 1 and increasing line by line. This format is particularly
useful where the excitation record has been generated on a spreadsheet.

(5)

CSMIP FORMAT (8F10.3)

(Default filename extension is .eqs)

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8

Gi

Acceleration (multiplied by ASCALE) at intervals of DELTAT

13

F 10.3

(6)

EXCEL FORMAT ( * )

(Default filename extension is .eqe)

T1 G1

T1
G1

Time of point on accelerogram (seconds)

Acceleration (decimal fraction of gravity)

F
F

The three items may be placed anywhere on the line and separated by at least one blank column. The lines
must be in consecutive order. This format, which is similar to the FREE format except without the sequence
numbers is particularly useful where the excitation record has been generated on a spreadsheet.

(6) PEER FORMAT (5E15.7)

(Default filename extension is .eqp)

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

Gi

Acceleration (multiplied by ASCALE) at intervals of DELTAT

E15.7

Note: The accelerogram time-step DELTAT is usually 0.004 seconds.

(7) SAC FORMAT (6E13.5)

(Default filename extension is .eqk)

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6

Gi

Acceleration (multiplied by ASCALE) at intervals of DELTAT

Note: The accelerogram time-step DELTAT is usually 0.020 seconds.

14

E 13.5

Running INSPECT in batch mode.

The program may be run in a batch mode as well as the interactive mode described above. In the batch
mode the graphics is disabled.
The .BAT file has the command line as follows:
INSPECT outputfile inputfile quake1file format deltat ascale istart save tsave
In Windows95 or Windows98 operating systems the command INSPECT should be preceded by START/w
to prevent the system from attempting to multi-task following command lines.
If the INSPECT executable file INSPECT.EXE is not in your path then the path should be part of the
command.
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

The outputfile is the name (including the path) of the output file. This file must NOT exist. If the file
does exist the analysis will terminate immediately.
The inputfile is the name (including path) of the input data file (in the form required in the following
part of this manual) and the file MUST exist. If the file cannot be found, because the name or path is
incorrect then the analysis will terminate.
The file quake1file is the name (including path) of the excitation file. This file MUST exist or the
analysis will be terminated.
The format is the word Berg, Caltech, NCEER, CSMIP, Free, Excel, Peer or SAC, or at least the
sufficient letters of the word to uniquely define the accelerogram format.
The deltat is the time-step of the accelerogram. If Berg or Free format etc. supply 1.0
The ascale is the scale factor required to convert the acceleration values to the acceleration of
gravity. If no scaling then ascale=1.0
The istart is the number of the first line of the accelerogram to use.
The Save is the word SAVE, in upper case if the user wishes to create the ASCII post-processor file
which will have the same root as the name of the outputfile but with the extension .SAS.
The Tsave is the word SAVE, in upper case if the user wishes to create the ASCII Trace data file
which will have the same root as the name of the outputfile but with the extension .SAZ.

As many such command lines as desired may be arranged in a .bat file.

The input data file is arranged as described below for the interactive version except that lines 1 to 6 and lines
21 to 24 are to be omitted.

15

Example
The following pages give the graphic output for the El Centro May 1940 North-South component
EL40NSC.EQB using the default inputs except for a bi-linear hysteresis with a bi-linear factor of 0.05 for 4
ductility values of 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 and using a 20 seconds duration and monochromatic plotting. The elastic
(ductility 1.0) line is the solid line and the dashed line is for ductility 2.0 etc.

Spectral Displacement

Spectral Acceleration

16

Elastic Energy Spectra

Plastic Work Spectra

17

Yield Force Spectra

Residual Displacement Spectra

18

Computed versus Target Ductility Spectra

19

.
End.

20