The current NGA West models for linear-elastic spectra are for 5% viscous damping. In reality, structures can have different damping ratios, depending on the structural type and level of input ground motions. Current guidelines to translate the 5% damped elastic spectra to other damping values pre-date the NGA West project and are possibly outdated. This task will develop a new damping model that can be used to adjust the 5% damped spectral predicted by the NGA West models to other damping values. This is important for loss modelers because it will allow them to use a damping value that better correlates with the response of typical structures.
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