The Study of the Seismic Assessment Parameters of a New Seismic-design Building

The Study of the Seismic Assessment Parameters of a New Seismic-design Building

At present, the commonly used method in earthquake engineering for new building design is based on the current seismic design specifications, according to seismic requirements and the allowable ductility capacity, which provides designers with a minimum design horizontal force, which is then combined with the response spectrum to complete the elastic design. The current seismic assessment procedures use nonlinear pushover analysis to achieve this result. The performance target ground acceleration of a structure is compared with the site peak ground acceleration of a design earthquake with a 475-year return period to evaluate whether the seismic capacity of the structure is adequate. This article explores the parameters and discusses the differences between seismic design specifications and seismic evaluation by pushover analysis. The initial yield lateral force and the ductility capacity from pushover analysis are all higher than those of the current seismic design specifications. The results of this study indicate that the current seismic design specifications have conservative design lateral force and ductility capacity requirements.