SEISMIC LOADING FOR BUILDINGS WITH SETBACKS

Dynamic analysis is in general accepted as the best method to obtain t he seismic load distribution for buildings with a setback. However, mo st building codes require the base shear obtained by dynamic analysis to be calibrated by the static base shear obtained using the code's eq uivalent static load procedure. In obtaining the code static base shea r, two issues often arise among the design professionals. First, it is unclear whether the code static base shear is applicable for building s with setbacks because the period prescribed by the code to be used i n the base shear formula is in general not pertinent to buildings with setbacks. Second, it is uncertain whether the higher mode period shou ld be used in computing the base shear when the modal weight of a high er mode is larger than that of the fundamental mode - a case often enc ountered in designing buildings with setbacks. This paper is an attemp t to resolve the above issues. For the first issue, modification facto rs were derived for adjusting the code period formula so that it can p rovide a more reasonable estimate for the period of a building with a setback. For the second issue, it was demonstrated in this paper that for cases where the modal weight of a higher mode is larger than that of the fundamental mode, using the higher mode period for base shear c alculation will result in unnecessarily conservative design.