In this paper, an extensive parametric study was carried out to evaluate the dynamic response of single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems with elasto-plastic and flag-shape hysteretic behaviour for three different dissipation capacities. Three sets of natural accelerograms were used, each one composed by at least 7 records which are on average spectrum-consistent in pseudo-acceleration, spectral displacement or both of them. All sets were also employed to draw the inelastic spectra for different ductility values. Such rigorous spectra were then compared with the approximated curves calculated using the N2 method and the Equivalent Linearization Procedure (ELP) based on the use of overdamped elastic spectra. The analyses demonstrate a general accuracy of the N2 method, which is mostly based on the ductility of the system, even for the hysteretic behaviour characterised by reduced energy dissipation. Larger discrepancies were found for systems with lower damping ratios and reduced fundamental periods. The ELP, which mainly depends upon the dissipated energy, led instead to overall slightly larger discrepancies than the N2 method, particularly for not dissipative and ductile systems, whereas the approximation is generally acceptable for elasto-plastic systems.
