Performance vs Resilience-based Earthquake Design for Low and Medium-rise retrofitted RC Buildings

A large number of reinforced concrete (RC) structures designed according to older codes do not satisfy the requirements of new seismic design standards. Current codes design the buildings based on life safety criteria. In a Performance-Based Design (PBD) approach, decisions are made based on demands, such as target displacement, and the performance of the structure in use. This type of design prevents loss of life but does not limit damages or maintain functionality. As a newly developed method, Resilience-Based Earthquake Design aims to maintain functionality of buildings and provide liveable conditions after strong ground movement. In fact, Resilience-Based Design (RBD) can be considered as the next generation of PBD. In this paper, seismic performances of a scaled eight-story frame and two full-scaled low-rise RC frames are evaluated. In order to evaluate the earthquake performance of the frames, the performance points of the two frames are calculated by the Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM) of ATC-40. This method estimates the maximum response of a structure by expressing both structure capacity and the ground motion demand in terms of spectral acceleration and displacement. Finally, the seismic performances of the frames are evaluated and the results are compared with a resilience-based design criterion.