Modeling and analysis of multi-storey buildings designed to principles of ductility and damage avoidance

The seismic performance of two typical 10 storey reinforced concrete moment-resisting frame buildings detailed to different design philosophies is examined. Two and three dimensional computational models are used to examine seismic performance of these two buildings with conventional seismic ductile design and damage avoidance design (DAD) details. The models are calibrated against experimental results. Using a suite of 20 earthquakes, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is conducted and the responses of the buildings to these earthquakes are interpreted probabilistically. Expected damage and loss modes due to different levels of seismic hazards are developed. Comparisons are made between: (1) the response of the two and three dimensional models to bi-directional earthquake excitations, considering interaction between moments and forces in 3D elements; and (2) the performance of the two different buildings designed according to the different design philosophies. Results indicate that for certain structures and earthquake excitations the response of the 2D model in orthogonal directions can be super-imposed to accurately approximate the 3D response. However, in other cases the interaction between orthogonal directions leads to increased engineering demands that are under-estimated by 2D modelling. The DAD building is observed to have significantly superior performance compared to the ductile building