Seismic Performance of Low Ductile RC Frame Designed in Accordance with Malaysia National Annex to Eurocode 8

Abstract

Malaysia national annex to Eurocode 8 was released in 2017 and now buildings in Malaysia should be designed in accordance with specifications given in this annex. Unlike Eurocode 8 in which the inter-story drift control is compulsory for all types of structures, the drift control in the Malaysia national annex has been limited to very important buildings. This study was carried out to investigate to what extent limiting the inter-story drifts to the given values by the code will affect the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. For this purpose, 4, 7 and 10-storey low-ductile RC buildings constructed on soft and stiff soils were designed for seismic actions. In the seismic design of buildings two different conditions were considered. First group of buildings were designed considering the limitation of interstory drift as suggested by the Eurocode 8. However, in the design of the second group of buildings the limitations of the inter-story drifts were not included. Both group of buildings were subjected to pushover analysis and their performance points were calculated using the capacity spectrum method. The obtained results indicated that the consideration of inter-story drift limits had insignificant effect on the damage intensity to beams and columns. However, buildings that their inter-story drifts were limited exhibited relatively lower damage intensity to infill walls.