To investigate the variability of ground motion characteristics (GMC) with the angle of seismic incidence (ASI) and the impact of seismic incident directionality on structural responses, first, a large-scale database of recorded ground motions was used to analyze the causes of GMC variability due to the seismic incident directionality effect (SIDE). Then a single-mass bi-degree-of-freedom system (SM-BDOF-S) with different types of symmetrical sections was selected to explore the influence mechanism of SIDE on the seismic responses. The results illustrated that the GMC has substantial variability with the ASI, which is independent of the earthquake source, propagation distance, and site condition, and exhibits complex random characteristics. Additionally, a classification method for ground motions is proposed based on this GMC variability to establish a criterion for selecting ground motions in seismic analysis considering the SIDE. Moreover, for an SM-BDOF-S, the response spectral plane is proposed to explain the transition behavior of spectral responses that are very similar among different stiffness ratios, but divergent for different types of ground motions. The influence of SIDE on structures is determined by their stiffness and stiffness ratio in the [Formula: see text]- and [Formula: see text]-directions, as well as the type of ground motion.
