The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Implications of recorded earthquake ground motions on seismic design of building structures

Uang, Chia-Ming; Bertero, Vitelmo V.

UCB/EERC-88/13, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1988-11, 100 pages (620/U16/1989)

The objectives of the study were to: (1) assess the reliability of the parameters used to identify the earthquake damage potential at a given site; (2) evaluate the reliability of ductility-based earthquake-resistant design as the only engineering parameter to reflect the design criteria, the acceptable level or degree of damage, and to reduce the yielding strength required on the basis of linear elastic response of structures to critical ground shaking; (3) examine the role and importance of the main response quantities which include drift index, input energy, hysteretic energy, cumulative displacement ductility ratio, and number of yielding reversals in the formulation of design criteria; (4) estimate the required overstrength for buildings designed to satisfy the Applied Technology Council (ATC) minimum required seismic forces and discuss their significance in relation to the response modification factor R; and (5) examine the actual seismic demands of structures designed in accordance with the ATC recommended design provisions. Eight earthquake ground motions, including three recently recorded motions that caused significant building damage, are considered.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-88-13.pdf (7 MB)