On a Process of Rapid Estimation of Seismic Demands for Generic Steel Frame Structures

The seismic demands of tall buildings can be evaluated by nonlinear response history analysis with some more representative, site-dependent, earthquakes, or by pushover analysis. However, the process of the evaluation is tedious and time consuming. Therefore, it is desirable to have a simplified process that provides quick and reasonable estimates of seismic demands, especially in the stage of conceptual (preliminary) design. Gupta & Krawinkler (2000) has reached on a process in the estimation of roof and story drift demands for frame structures from the spectral displacement at the first period of the structure, through a series of modification factors, accounting for MDOF effects, inelasticity effects, and P-delta effects. It is found that this process can estimate seismic demands reasonably, provided that no negative post-yield story stiffness exists. Also, the modification factors are uniform or with reasonable dispersion, except for structures dominated by higher mode effects. This study has conducted a similar research by performing simulations on Taiwan code–compliant structures of different heights (2,5,10,20 and 30 stories), located in different seismic zones and subjected to sets of local ground motions. The feature of this study is that the seismic demands are estimated from the SRSS of the elastic, modal roof displacements of the structure, instead of the first mode spectral displacement. The simulation results have shown that the modification factors are more promising — uniform or with more reasonable dispersion — even the structure is dominated by high mode effects. Therefore, it is concluded that the process proposed in this study is a feasible method and the modification factors obtained in this study are useful for local engineer in engineering applications.