With the seismic wave recorded in Wenchuan earthquake as the input

the centre column of a typical metro station was simulated numerically by the software FLAC3D for its strong seismic responses.The D-P constitutive model was assumed for the soils

the elasticity for the station structure

and Rayleigh damping and Hardin/Drnevich model of hysteretic damping were used to simulate the nonlinearity and hysteresis of the soils under cyclic dynamic loading.The computational results include the relative deformation

axial force

shearing force

bending moment in the centre column

as well as its regularity of the acceleration response.They show that the centre column on the lower floor is the weakest component of the station structure in earthquake

and its damages are due to the combined effects of horizontal and vertical ground motions.