Vol. 3, No. 1- Summer 2001

Comparative Evaluation of Seismic Assessment Methodologies Applied to a 32-Story Reinforced Concrete Office Building
Ali M. Memari, Shahriar Rafiee, Alireza Y. Motlagh and Andrew Scanlon

Results of seismic damage evaluation of a tall reinforced concrete building are presented. Plastic hinge formation patterns obtained by using DRAIN-2D and IDARC computer programs for dynamic analysis are compared. Damage indices given by IDARC are interpreted and their implications compared with those of drift ratios. Results of static push-over analysis are compared with those of inelastic dynamic time history analysis. Moreover, the result of collapse mechanism approach is compared with that of static push-over analysis. It is shown that simple collapse mechanism approach can predict the failure mode given by static push-over analysis for this building. It is concluded that drift limits in codes do not necessarily predict the degree of damage that this type of construction can sustain in severe earthquakes.

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