Abstract
In this paper a functional model to estimate the inelastic displacement ratio as a function of the ductility factor is presented. The coefficients of the functional model are approximated using nonlinear regression. The used data is in the form of computed displacement for an inelastic single degree of freedom system with a fixed ductility factor. The inelastic seismic response spectra of constant ductility factors are used for generating data. A method for selecting ground-motions that have similar frequency content to that of the ones picked for the comparison is presented. The variability of the seismic response of nonlinear single degree of freedom systems with different hysteretic behavior is presented.