A theoretical procedure to estimate spectral displacement of a hysteretic oscillator with bilinear stiffness excited by band-limited excitation is presented. The stochastic method of ground-motion simulation is combined with the random vibration theory to compute linear and nonlinear structural response. The response is obtained by computing the root-mean-square oscillator response using dissipation energy balancing by integrating over all energy levels of system weighting with the stationary probability density of the energy. The results are presented in a convenient form, and the accuracy of the procedure is assessed by comparison with results obtained with the time-domain method using the recorded data. The model shows little or no bias at the structural period of engineering interest.
