Study On Direct Displacement-Based Seismic Design Theory For Reinforced Concrete Frame Structure

Performance-based seismic design theory is a new concept in civil engineering field. Much attention has been paid to it and many researches have been done. Direct displacement-based seismic design is one of the performance-based seismic designs. Direct displacement-based seismic design method has such advantages that the performance level is more straightforward and the method is easy to use, therefore it gets many researchers' attention.This paper comprehensively reviews the development process of structure seismic design theory. At the same time, the concept of the direct displacement-based seismic design theory is introduced. By using a kind method of the direct displacement-based seismic design theory, a eight floor frame structure is designed according with different performance levels, and the results calculated are verified by non-linear static analysis method. The influence of displacement model on direct displacement-based seismic design was also studied.From the design example we found that the structure designed with direct displacement-based seismic design can control the displacement well because displacement can reflect the performance of the structure better than that of strength. Index of the different performance levels expressed by the inter-story drift ratio can availably control the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frame structure under different earthquake levels, which is helpful to the structure designer. However, when the earthquake magnitude increased, sometimes the sections of beam and column should be increased. From the analysis through different displacement model we found that different displacement model directly influenced the outcome of calculated results based on direct displacement-based seismic design and we should do more research on the displacement model of the structure.