A joint analysis of global seismicity and seismic tomography indicates that the seismic potential of continental intraplate regions is correlated with the seismic properties of the lithosphere. Archean and Early Proterozoic cratons with cold, stable continental lithospheric roots have fewer crustal earthquakes and a lower maximum earthquake catalog moment magnitude (Mcmax). The geographic shear...

Conventional design of steel plate shear walls SPSWs assumes that 100% of the story shear is resisted by each infill panel. Following this approach, strength provided by the boundary frame moment resisting action, which provides the SPSW with overstrength, is neglected. While this design assumption has a positive impact on seismic performance of SPSWs, no analytical work has been done to quanti...

Seismic rehabilitation provides existing buildings with more resistance to seismic activity, ground motion, or geotechnical failure due to earthquakes. Performance-based rehabilitation is a general concept through which the retrofitting criteria are defined regarding to performance objectives when the structural and nonstructural members are subject to different levels of earthquake hazards. In...

Setback in elevation of a structure is a special irregularity with considerable effect on its seismic performance. This paper addresses multistory Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame buildings, regular and irregular in elevation. Several multistory Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames (RCMRFs) with different types of setbacks, as well as the regular frames in elevation, are designed according...

A dual structural fused system consists of replaceable ductile elements (fuses) that sustain major seismic damage and leave the primary structure (PS) virtually undamaged. The seismic performance of a fused structural system is determined by the combined behavior of the individual PS and fuse components. In order to design a feasible and economic structural fuse concept, we need a procedure to ...