Abstract
A stochastic equivalent linearization technique of bi-linear hysteretic characteristics is developed. Using this technique, an ordinary differential equation for the estimation of the second order moments of a sigle-degree-of freedom bi-linear hysteretic system subjected to non-stationary random excitation is derived. A comparison of two techniques-an equivalent linearization and a Fokker-Planck equation techniques-are made concerning the differences of the two sets of the ordinary differential equation and the transient r. m. s. displacement and velocity responses given by these two techniques. Extention of this approach to a multi-degree-of-freedom bi-linear hysteretic system and a single-degree-of-freedom poly-linear hysteretic system is discussed.
