Pushover analysis of structures subjected to combined actions of earthquake and wind

This paper puts forward a framework to investigate the structural performance of buildings subject to the combined action of earthquakes and wind. The study uses a pushover analysis to determine strength capacities of low- and medium-rise concrete structures to compare versus their strength, as inferred from the Chinese code for seismic design. The analysis addresses soil-structure interactions through the scrutiny of fixed-base and flexible base conditions of three soil types ranging between dense and soft. The parametric study covers micro meteorological winds whose mean value spans between 0.5 m/s and 20 m/s. The simulated multi-load scenarios induce ductility levels going from 1 to 6 to totalise 288 case studies. The proposed framework reveals that consideration of earthquake and wind simultaneous effects could modify performance levels used for design through enhancing ductility demands. This evidences that, under current design recommendations, structures located in earthquake prone areas susceptible to unexpected levels of damage.