Toward more rational criteria for determination of design earthquake forces

The preliminary design of most buildings is based on equivalent static forces specified by the governing building code. The height wise distribution of these static forces seems to be based implicitly on the elastic vibration modes. Therefore, the employment of such a load pattern in seismic design of normal structures does not guarantee the optimum use of materials. This paper presents a new method for optimization of dynamic response of structures subjected to seismic excitation. This method is based on the concept of uniform distribution of deformation. In order to obtain the optimum distribution of structural properties, an iterative optimization procedure has been adopted. In this approach, the structural properties are modified so that inefficient material is gradually shifted from strong to weak areas of a structure. This process is continued until a state of uniform deformation is achieved. It is shown that the seismic performance of such a structure is optimal, and behaves generally better than those designed by conventional methods. By conducting this algorithm on shear-building models with various dynamic characteristics subjected to 20 earthquake ground motions, more adequate load patterns are introduced with respect to the period of the structure and the target ductility demand. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.