Performance Based Seismic Design Of Buildings

Abstract

Amongst the natural hazards, earthquakes have the potential for causing the greatest damages. Since earthquake forces are random in nature & unpredictable, the engineering tools needs to be sharpened for analyzing structures under the action of these forces. Performance based design is gaining a new dimension in the seismic design philosophy wherein the near field ground motion (usually acceleration) is to be considered. Earthquake loads are to be carefully modeled so as to assess the real behavior of structure with a clear understanding that damage is expected but it should be regulated. In this context pushover analysis which is an iterative procedure shall be looked upon as an alternative for the orthodox analysis procedures. This study focuses on pushover analysis of multi-storey RC framed buildings subjecting them to monotonically increasing lateral forces with an invariant height wise distribution until the preset performance level (target displacement) is reached. The promise of performance-based seismic engineering (PBSE) is to produce structures with predictable seismic performance. To turn this promise into a reality, a comprehensive and well-coordinated effort by professionals from several disciplines is required.

Performance Based Seismic Design Of Buildings