Bound Direct Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Buildings

Abstract

Limitations of probabilistic model appear when information is insufficient. Convex set model, which much less information is needed, is employed to model uncertainties of target displacement, peak acceleration and predominant period of ground motion. A new bound direct displacement-based seismic design method is proposed. The interval of seismic design results is obtained by considering the uncertainties of design variables and the relative risk of any design scheme within the interval is also simultaneously provided. The results of a four-storey RC building show that the base shear and beam sectional area by Xue's design scheme are close to the lower bound of the bound design method, and the column sectional area and the weight of steel bar are just over the middle value to the upper bound. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the base shear is more sensitive to target displacement.