Energy based procedure to obtain target displacement of reinforced concrete structures

Performance-based seismic design allows a structure to develop inelastic response during earthquakes. This modern seismic design requires more clearly defined levels of inelastic response. The ultimate deformation of a structure without total collapse (target displacement) is used to obtain the inelastic deformation capacity (inelastic performance). The inelastic performance of a structure indicates its performance under excitation. In this study, a new energy-based method to obtain the target displacement for reinforced concrete frames under cyclic loading is proposed. Concrete structures were analyzed using nonlinear static (pushover) analysis and cyclic loading. Failure of structures under cyclic loading was controlled and the new method was tested to obtain target displacement. In this method, the capacity energy absorption of the structures for both pushover and cyclic analyses were considered to be equal. The results were compared with FEMA-356, which confirmed the accuracy of the proposed method.