GRAVITY-LOAD-DESIGNED REINFORCED-CONCRETE BUILDINGS .1. SEISMIC EVALUATION OF EXISTING CONSTRUCTION

The seismic performance of nonductile reinforced concrete frame buildi ngs in regions of low to moderate seismicity is evaluated. Several sig nificant aspects of nonductile detailing are modeled using rational si mplifications of expected member behavior at critical sections to faci litate a complete inelastic time history analysis of the system. The d etailing configurations included in the analysis are: discontinuous po sitive flexural reinforcement, lack of joint shear reinforcement, and inadequate transverse reinforcement for column core confinement. Seism ic evaluations of three-, six-, and nine-story buildings are carried o ur under low- to moderate earthquake excitations. The essential parame ters of the response are presented with a view to identifying vulnerab ility of such buildings to a potential seismic design event.