Seismic design may require non-conventional concept, due to the fact that the stiffness and layout of the structure have a great effect on the overall structural behaviour, on the seismic load intensity as well as on the internal force distribution. To find an economical and optimal structural configuration the key issue is the optimal design of the lateral load resisting system. This paper foc...

according to non-existence of accurate inspection tools on various steps of design and construction of buildings in the past, also due to any change in function of some structures and finally of seismic activities of residential regions of the country, vulnerability assessment of existing structures is necessary. evaluation of vulnerability of the structures is classified in two categories, qua...

Guidelines for seismic spectral amplification are provided in current building codes based on soil strength/stiffness by means of seismic site class. However, current codes do not make a difference between fully saturated and unsaturated soil deposits and do not account for effects of soil heterogeneity on seismic amplification. This study investigates the effect of natural small scale soil het...

Seismic resiliency of new buildings has improved over the years due to enhancements in seismic codes and design practices. However, existing buildings designed and built under earlier codes are vulnerable and require a performance-based screening and retrofit prioritization. The performance modifiers considered are soft story, weak story, and the quality of construction, which are collated thro...

This paper presents a new methodology for the displacement-based seismic design of symmetric single-storey wood-frame buildings. Previous displacement-based design efforts were based on the direct displacement-based design approach, which uses a substitute linear system with an appropriate stiffness and viscous damping combination. Despite the fact that this method has shown to produce promisin...

The updated version for the Manual of Civil Structures (MOC), a model seismic code in Mexico, was published in 2008. MOC also is incorporating guidelines for the seismic design of base-isolated structures this year 2012, being the first Mexican code to include such recommendations. This paper summarizes the most relevant aspects of these guidelines, their relations to other guidelines worldwide...

This research focused on developing reliability-based seismic retrofit assessment procedures for highway bridge columns. Fragility curves were developed to assess the relative performance of various retrofit methods considering several limit states. Analytical fragility curves are developed from scaled earthquake records and structural response models. A simplified, single-degree-of-freedom (SD...

Structural engineers, researchers, code committees, and regulatory bodies have become increasingly interested in performance-based design of structures, systems, and components (SSCs) in the past few years. This has been demonstrated by the publication of codes for the performance-based design of traditional buildings, and by publication of a consensus standard for evaluating the seismic perfor...

In this study, constant-ductility optimization algorithm under a family of earthquake ground motions is utilized to achieve uniform damage distribution over the height of steel moment resisting frames (SMRFs). SMRF structures with stiffness-degrading hysteric behavior are modeled as single-bay generic frame in which the plastic hinge is confined only at the beam ends and the bottom of the first...

D analyses of structures responding elastically to ground motions recorded during severe earthquakes have shown that the theoretical response inertia loads are generally significantly greater than the static design lateral loads recommended by codes. Hence, structures designed for the lateral earthquake loads recommended by codes can only survive severe earthquakes if they have sufficient ducti...