By reviewing literature in the field of earthquake engineering, the pulse-component models of earthquake ground motions are collected and organized. The characteristics of various pulse models are compared and discussed. The research significance of these pulse-component models is concluded and organized to form a systematic research framework. According to the existing research results, it is pointed out that the seismic hazard analysis considering the pulse effects in earthquake ground motions is the core in the research framework. Although the pulse models use different mathematical expressions to describe the same pulse characteristics, their performance is similar in structural dynamics. There are similarities between the pulse models with the forward directivity effect and those with the fling-step effect. At last, the details on considering the pulse effects in ground-motion selections for seismic design of structures are discussed.