Assessment of inelastic response of buildings using force- and displacement-based approaches

In recognition of the increasing importance of accurate seismic vulnerabili ty assessment, this paper deals with procedures and the application of inel astic acceleration and displacement spectra in the seismic assessment of bu ildings. An identification procedure is outlined, whereby an equivalent sin gle degree of freedom (SDOF) system is devised to represent the building. T he SDOF system characteristics (stiffness, strength, post-peak force respon se and ductility) are readily evaluated from observation of the seismic res ponse of buildings and simple mechanics. The characteristics are then tuned using measurements from instrumented buildings. Based on the earthquake sc enario and structural response characteristics, appropriate inelastic accel eration and displacement spectra are selected and used to 'predict' the res ponse. Comparison between the measured and predicted responses for the five buildings studied in the paper confirm the feasibility of the procedure an d the realism of the results. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.