Evaluating the consistency between prescriptive and performance-based seismic design approaches for reinforced concrete moment frame buildings

Abstract

The performance of 4- and 8-story reinforced concrete (RC) moment frame buildings designed in accordance with ASCE/SEI 7–10 is assessed using ASCE/SEI 41. Practicing engineers are increasingly using ASCE/SEI 41 as the standard to implement performance-based seismic design and to demonstrate the adequacy of the seismic performance of new buildings. However, ASCE/SEI 41 was originally developed to assess the structural performance of existing buildings. On the other hand, ASCE 7 is a prescriptive standard that has been used for the design of new buildings for several decades. The correlation between the target performance of the ASCE/SEI 41- and ASCE 7-code compliant buildings is unknown for RC moment frames. In order to compare the anticipated structural performance between ASCE/SEI 7 and ASCE/SEI 41, the seismic performance of 4- and 8-story ASCE/SEI 7 code-compliant special reinforced concrete moment frame buildings is assessed based on the four evaluation methodologies defined in the Tier 3 analysis of ASCE/SEI 41 for the collapse prevention and life safety performance levels. The evaluation results show that depending on the ASCE/SEI 41 evaluation approach employed, the buildings designed per ASCE/SEI 7 may not meet the expected performance in ASCE/SEI 41 and need to be retrofitted.