Maximum Floor Displacement Profiles for the Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Frames

Abstract eng:
A new method to estimate the maximum floor displacement profiles of regular RC frames at different damage levels subjected to earthquakes is proposed in this study for the purpose of displacement-based seismic design. At first, a set of 25 RC plane frames with different characteristics was designed. A set of 16 physical accelerograms containing different frequency spectrum was employed as input ground motions. The maximum floor displacement profiles were obtained for each pair of frame and accelerograms by nonlinear dynamic analysis when the frame just arrived at slight, moderate, and severe damage state respectively. For each frame the median and coefficient of variation of maximum floor displacement under each set of ground motions were calculated to take the statistical characteristics of seismic responses into consideration. Secondly, the shape of the maximum displacement profile and the distribution of coefficient of variation over the height were analyzed. The fundamental period, column-to-beam strength ratio, and damage level were identified as the main factors having significant effects on the maximum displacement profiles. On the basis of regression analysis of the results, the expressions to estimate the maximum displacement profiles were generated to associate the maximum floor displacement with the maximum story drift ratio over the height and the main structural parameters of the frame. The developed profiles are independent of sections and reinforcement of the frame so that they can be used as the starting design variables in displacement-based seismic design.

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