Buildings

Abstract

This chapter presents methods for computer analysis of buildings under earthquake actions, with references and correlations to pertinent code provisions and with a brief discussion on computer software for analysis and design. An introduction to elastic and inelastic response and design spectra is followed by a discussion of building models for dynamic response analyses and by a presentation of procedures for reducing the degrees of freedom to three per floor when the building has floors rigid in their planes. The equations of motion are then formulated and their solution by modal analysis is presented, both for the time history and the response spectrum methods. Inelastic building analyses, both static (pushover) and dynamic, ductility factors and code simplifications are briefly reviewed and the relation between ductility factors and the code specified behavior factors, through which the elastic seismic actions are reduced to design level actions, is examined. The chapter is concluded with a brief discussion on pertinent computer software and its desirable features.