Displacement-based seismic design of buildings - application

The displacement-based seismic design method is applied to the design of a two-storey and an eight-storey building having concentrically braced steel frames as the lateral load resisting system. To the authors' knowledge, thi s marks the first application of this method to the seismic design of (stee l) buildings. Displacement spectra for design are generated numerically fro m appropriate earthquake accelerograms. The buildings are designed to have both elastic and inelastic responses in the design earthquake. The influenc e of torsion due to an asymmetric building layout, column shortening, and h igher vibration modes, is addressed. Nonlinear static and dynamic time hist ory analyses are used to assess the seismic response. The displacement-base d design method is shown to be a viable alternative to the current spectral acceleration-based design approach. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.