CE 190 Undergraduate Research Proposal

10 December 2014
Structural Engineering Group

Design Sensitivity Analysis of Three-Storey Reinforced Concrete MomentResisting Frame Structures using Performance-Based Seismic Engineering
JOHN PAUL M. SAWALI
Undergraduate Student, B.S. Civil Engineering Program
Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman
E-mail: jpmsawali@gmail.com
Advisers:
Engr. Raniel M. Suiza
Instructor, Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman
Dr. Benito M. Pacheco
Professor, Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman

Abstract: Performance-based seismic design (PBSD) is gaining wide acceptance among experts as the future of seismic
design. Its methodology is highly based on a series of iterative verification processes yet the current guidelines provides
little guidance on how to modify initial configuration making it time consuming for practicing engineers. This study aims
to establish design sensitivity analysis of earthquake sensitive parameters with selected performance objectives using the
performance-based design process. The Capacity Spectrum Method will be employed to determine the performance point
which is the intersection of the building capacity curve from pushover analysis and the demand curve from seismic hazard
maps. Damage state evaluation as implemented in the technical manuals of Hazards-US-Multi-Hazard (HazUS-MH) will
be adapted to generate fragility curves for the specific building type under study. Vulnerability curves are then to be
derived which are expressed in damage indices as a reflection of repair as compared to the replacement cost of the entire
structure. Finally, relationships between intensity measures, earthquake sensitive parameters and performance objectives
will be established.

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The prescriptive (code-based) design approach sets
minimum requirements for safety on structural
components regarding its construction, materials and
the method of assembly which is the common design
practice worldwide. With the advent of advances in
seismic design of buildings, there is a wide agreement
among experts that there is a need to consider the
performance of the structural system as a whole
because assessment of its components tends to
underestimate its performance (Xue, 2007). This new
kind of building design approach is called
performance-based
design.
Performance-based
seismic design (PBSD) explicitly evaluates how a
building is likely to perform, given the potential
earthquake hazard it is likely to experience,
considering the uncertainties inherent in the
quantification of potential hazard and uncertainties in
assessment of the actual building response
(FEMA,2006).

Figure 1. Performance-based design methodology

Figure 1 shows the methodology for performancebased design from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). It starts with the
selection of performance objectives which are the
statements of acceptable performance of the building.
The first generation performance objectives
introduced the concept of performance in terms of
performance levels to connote expected level of
damage: Collapse, Collapse Prevention, Life Safety,
Immediate Occupancy, and Operational Performance.
Currently, the next generation of performance
objectives are translated to performance measures
that are more useful for all stakeholders in terms of
casualties, repair costs and time of occupancy
interruption (Pacheco,2014). Initial building design
configuration is done and is subjected to numerical
tests. Performance assessment is employed through
structural analysis of structural and nonstructural
components to determine whether or not it has met
the pre-selected performance objectives. If
performance is unsatisfactory, modification from
1

initial building design is employed and iterates the

process until all performance objectives are met.

made a comparative analysis between retrofitting

techniques by use of fibre-reinforced polymer, steeljackets, and concrete jackets. Results showed that
among these techniques, concrete jackets are found to
be the most effective. (Yang, et. al , 2014) employed
performance-based seismic design in the optimization
of buckling-restrained knee braced truss moment
frame by determining the inclination of the bucklingrestrained braces where the strain is lowest. Analysis
showed that the optimum angles are 30 and 90
degrees. While there have been a lot of studies on
design optimization, there are relatively few studies
regarding the sensitivity of design parameters to
performance objectives.

Laborious iteration is a result of undetermined

parameters to modify in the building design
configuration and its corresponding effect on the
over-all performance. Thus there is a need to
establish design sensitivity of earthquake-sensitive
parameters in order to optimize performance
objectives using performance based methodology.
1.2 Objectives
This study can be realized with if the following
objectives have been met:

(Goudar, 2012) studied the sensitivity of design

parameters such as strength of concrete , strength of
steel and cover to reinforcement on performance of
the structures with bare frame structures and frame
with rigid slabs. The parameters that are used in the
study only considered uncertainty in the structure
where uncertainties brought by hazard remained
constant.

Identification of performance objectives that

affect the seismic performance of a building
Quantification of the effects of varying
performance
objectives,
for
each
earthquake-sensitive parameter, using the
performance-based design process
Correlation of the effects of modifications in
earthquake-sensitive parameters with overall building performance

There are two non-linear analyses to estimate seismic

demands: Nonlinear Static Procedure (NSP) and the
Nonlinear Dynamic Procedure (NDP). Nonlinear
dynamic analysis is the most accurate method in
evaluating the performance of a building using time
history analysis but is way too complex and timeconsuming. A simplified nonlinear static procedure
commonly known as pushover analysis subjects the
structure under permanent vertical load and gradually
increasing lateral load up to failure that enables us to
determine collapse load and ductility capacity. The
result of the procedure is a plot of total base shear to
top displacement. Goudar, et. al. (2012) recommend
the use of pushover analysis as a simple yet efficient
method in estimating the seismic demands of a
structure.

1.3. Scope and Limitations

This study is limited to regular three-storey
reinforced concrete moment resisting frame structures
because considering all the building types will be a
very tedious task and might not be allowed by time
constraints. Pushover analysis will be employed
instead of time history dynamic analysis because of
its applicability to the building type under study and
due to limited earthquake records.
1.4 Conceptual Framework

Mwafy, et.al. (2000) studied the applicability of

pushover analysis by comparing it with dynamic
pushover where idealized envelopes obtained from
incremental dynamic collapse. Static pushover
analysis is appropriate for low-rise and short-period
frame structures and for well-defined buildings with
structural irregularities, the results show good
correlation with dynamic analysis.
ATC 40 offers a way of approximating the
performance of a structure through capacity spectrum
method. This method determines the performance
point or the peak building capacity as the intersection
of capacity and demand curves. The capacity curve is
derived from nonlinear static analysis and demand
curves are obtained from earthquake ground motion
records or appropriate local building codes.

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework

The Hazard-US Multi-Hazard Loss Estimation

Methodology Earthquake Model (HazUS-MH)
developed an applicable methodology for estimating
potential earthquake losses using fragility and

2. Review of Related Literature

Performance-based design has been intensively used
in optimization of design of buildings. (Ismail, 2014)
2

vulnerability curves. The fragility curve is a form of

building damage function that relates the probability
of exceeding a building damage state given a seismic
demand parameter (e.g. response spectrum
displacement). A vulnerability curve is used to
estimate the degree of loss in a building for a given
intensity of the hazard. The degree of damage in a
building for a given intensity of the hazard is
estimated with the use of damage ratio ratio of the
cost of repairs of the damage to the replacement cost
of the entire structure (Pacheco, 2014).
Figure 4. Relationship of performance objectives
and damage levels

3. Methodology
Figure 3 shows the simplified flowchart of design
sensitivity analysis to be employed. The methodology
can be simplified into five phases: earthquakesensitive parameters and performance objective
selection, hazard analysis, structural analysis, damage
analysis and loss analysis.

Inter-storey Drift of Threshold of

Damage State
High-Code Low-Code Pre-Code
Slight
0.005
0.005
0.004
Moderate
0.001
0.008
0.0064
Extensive
0.03
0.02
0.016
Complete
0.08
0.05
0.04
Table 1. Inter-storey drift at threshold of damage
states for C1-L (HAZUS Table 5.9d)
Damage
State

Second generation performance-based design

introduces a more meaningful way to aid in the
decision-making process of stakeholders. The
performance objectives are expressed in terms of
casualties, repair cost, and operational interruption
(downtime). This study is limited to direct physical
damage to the building therefore among the secondgeneration performance objectives, repair cost will be
selected in the form of damage ratio. Damage ratio is
the ratio of the average cost of repair to the cost for
building replacement (Hwang et al., 1994)
Figure 3. Flowchart of Design Sensitivity Analysis
of Earthquake-Sensitive Parameters

3.2 Catalogue of Earthquake-Sensitive Parameters

PBSD have a lot of uncertainties incorporated in
hazard analysis, structural analysis, damage analysis
and loss analysis. Design sensitivity analysis
quantifies the effect of a parameter holding other
variables constant. Careful selection a parameter to
vary is a crucial step in performing sensitivity
analysis. Table 2 shows the parameters sensitive to
earthquake either coming from the building or the
hazard. The parameters in bold format will be
considered in the study.

3.1. Development of Performance Objectives

Throughout the development of performance-based
design, performance objectives vary from one
generation to the next as a result of the need to
address problem of current status. The first generation
performance objectives introduced the concept of
performance in terms of performance levels to
connote expected level of damage: Collapse, Collapse
Prevention, Life Safety, Immediate Occupancy and
Operational Performance. Performance of a building
can be evaluated based on the expected damage levels
slight damage, moderate damage, extensive damage
and complete damage. The relationship of
performance objectives and damage state can be seen
on a typical pushover curve shown in Figure 4.
Moreover, HAZUS provided threshold value for
damage evaluation in the form of drift ratios at the
threshold of structural damage.

Building Parameter

Occupancy
Type

Height
Structural
Material
3

Essential,
Hazardous,
Special,
Standard,
Miscellaneous
Low-Rise (12), Mid-Rise
(3-7), HighRise (8-above)
Wood,
Masonry,

Earthquake
Hazard Parameter
Seismic
Zone

Zone II,
Zone IV

Seismic
Source
Type

A, B, C

Seismic
Source

Near
Source,

Concrete,
Proximit
Far
Steel
y
Field
Moment
Lateral
Resisting
Sa, Sb,
Force
Frame, Shear
Soil
Sc, Sd,
Resisting
Wall, Braced
Profiles
Se
System
Frame, Dual
System
Beam and
Member
Column
Stiffness
Dimension,
and
Reinforcement
Dimension
, Material
Properties
Table 2. Catalogue of Earthquake Sensitive
Parameters

displacement derived from the equivalent capacity

spectrum .The count of structures exceeding the
threshold value for a certain type of damage state
divided by the total number of structures is referred to
as the damage probability matrix. The probability of
exceedance is the probability of the structure of being
in or exceeding the damage state for given ground
motion intensity. The probability of exceedance will
be plotted against ground motion intensity and curvefit that will produce the fragility curve.
3.6. Vulnerability Curves
Vulnerability curves are then derived from the
fragility curves by using,

(Eq. 1)
where,

The building configuration will be a standard threestorey reinforced concrete moment-resisting frame
structure where beam and column dimensions are set
to vary. Extension of the study to other parameters
such as reinforcing bars and material properties may
be conducted as well.

Damage probability at a certain GMI

Damage index for a certain damage state i
Probability of a structure being in a certain
damage state i
HazUS provided damage ranges where the median is
set to be the damage index for the damage state.

Earthquake hazard parameters will be considered in

the characterization of ground shaking in the
selection of earthquake scenarios.

Expected Output

3.3 Earthquake Hazard Scenario

The expected output for this study is a catalogue of

performance objectives, structural fragility curves for
the building type and three-dimensional graph
relating intensity, beam and column dimension, and
damage ratio (repair cost).

There are two ways in characterizing ground motion

and that is through deterministic ground motion
analysis and probabilistic ground motion analysis.
For this study, earthquake demand will be obtained
from hazard maps from the Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology (PHILVOCS).

Research Schedule
Activities
Background Reading on PBD and earthquake
Midterm Presentation
Study e-tabs software and pushover-analysis
Develop Methodology for each Objectives
Create Baseline Building Model
Prepare for Finals Presentation
Manuscript Writing/Updating
Read Journals and Related Articles
Vary earthquake sensitive parameter and re-run
Collate Results
Finalize Presentation and Manuscipt

The design response spectrum is an elastic response

spectrum for 5% equivalent viscous damping that will
be generated from hazard maps. Hazard maps
accounts all earthquake hazard parameters listed in
Table 2 expressing the probability that ground
shaking of different intensities may be experienced
on the site.

November December January February March

April
1 2 3 41 2 3 41 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

3.4. Capacity Spectrum Method

REFERENCES
The Capacity Spectrum Method is a method of
approximating the response of the structure.
Performance of the structure is represented by the
performance point which is the graphical intersection
of the capacity of the structure in the form of the
pushover curve and the demand of the hazard in the
form of response spectrum. (Pacheco, 2014) In the
study, nonlinear pushover analysis is implemented
over time history dynamic analysis because (1) it is
relatively simple and (2) it approximates the behavior
of a low-rise regular structure.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

3.5 Fragility Curves

Damage-state evaluation is done by comparing the
result of capacity spectrum method or performance
point to the threshold values in terms of spectral

6.

Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (2010).

National Structural Code of the Philippines. Sixth Edition,
Quezon City, Philippines
Federal Emergency Management Agency (2006). Next
Generation Perfomance-Based Seismic Design, Redwood
City, California, USA, pp. IX
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2003). Multihazard Loss Estimation Methodology Earthquake Model.
Washington, D.C.
Goudar, Ajay, et al. Sensitivity of pushover analysis to design
parameters an analytical investigation (2012). International
Journal of Advanced Structures and Geotechnical
Engineering
Ismail, A. (2013). Nonlinear Static Analysis of Retrofitted
Reinforced Concrete Building. HBRC, Structure and Metallic
Institute, Egypt. Elsevier B.V.
Munshi, Javeed et. al. Analyses of Seismic Performance f a
code designed reinforced concrete building.(1998). Portland
Cement Association, Orchard Road, USA.

7.

8.

9.

Pacheco, et. al. Development of Vulnerability Curves of Key

Building Types in the Greater Metro Manila Area,
Philippines. Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the
Philippines Diliman, Quezon City.
Xue, Qiang, et.a;l. The draft code for performance-based
seismic design of buildings in Taiwan (2006). Civil and
Hydraulic Engineering Research Center, Sinotech
Engineering Consultants Inc, Taiwan.
Yang, et. al. (2013). Perfromance Based Design and
Optimization of Buckling Restrained Knee Braced Truss
Moment Frame. Vancouver, Canada. ASCE Library Journal
of Performance of Constructed Facilities