Optimum building design based on energy dissipation

Abstract eng:
The basic objective of this study is the assessment of the European seismic design codes and in particular of EC2 and EC8 with respect to the recommended behaviour factor q [1]. The assessment is performed on two reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings, having sym-metrical and nonsymmetrical plan view respectively, which were optimally designed under four different values of the behaviour factor. In the mathematical formulation of the optimization problem the initial construction cost is considered as the objective function to be minimized while the cross sections and steel reinforcement of the beams and the columns constitute the design variables [2]. The provisions of Eurocodes 2 and 8 are imposed as constraints to the optimization problem. Life-cycle cost analysis [3], in conjunction with structural optimization, is believed to be a reliable procedure for assessing the performance of structures during their life time designed for different behaviour factors. The two most important findings that can be deduced are summarized as follows: (i) The proposed Eurocode behaviour factor does not lead to a more economical design with respect to the total life-cycle cost com-pared to other values of q. (ii) The differences of the total life-cycle cost for different q values may be substantially greater than those observed for the initial construction cost. Acknowledgement The first author gratefully acknowledge the financial support of John Argyris Foundation. References [1] Fajfar, P. Towards nonlinear methods for the future seismic codes, In Seismic design practice into the next century, Booth (Ed.), Balkema, 1998. [2] Lagaros, N.D., Papadrakakis, M. Seismic design of RC structures: a critical assessment in the framework of multi-objective optimization. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 2007; 36(12): 1623–1639. [3] Wen YK, Kang YJ. Minimum building life-cycle cost design criteria. I: Methodology. Journal of Structural Engineering 2001; 127(3): 330–337.

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