Seismic drift demands of reinforced concrete buildings

Abstract

The main objective of the current research is to establish drift demands for reinforced concrete buildings designed on the basis of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC-2005). A total of 12 reinforced concrete buildings with three different heights and structural systems, consisting of moment resisting frames with and without shear walls and structures with core walls, were designed for eastern and western Canada. A comprehensive analytical research was conducted involving more than 140 analyses of buildings to investigate inelastic seismic drift demands in Canada. The investigation consisted of three phases. The first phase included preparation of a Visual Basic pre-processor for an existing general purpose dynamic analysis software. The second phase involved the design of selected buildings. The third and final phase consisted of dynamic inelastic response history analysis of buildings under code compatible earthquake records. A large number of artificially generated earthquake records were selected, reflecting the seismicity of the two cities considered in design, i.e., Ottawa in the east and Vancouver in the west. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)