Energy-based seismic design for self-centering concrete frames

Conventional concrete frames are designed to dissipate the earthquake energy through inelastic deformation of the structural elements. It leads to hefty repairment costs and prolonged down time after earthquakes. Self-centering concrete frames (SCCF) have been introduced to minimize the unrecoverable structural damages and post-earthquake repairment costs. SCCF exhibits predictable yield mechanism and self-centering capacity. This paper presents an energy-based seismic design (EBSD) procedure for SCCFs. Based on a proposed damage model, hysteretic energy demand, EH, is introduced as a key design parameter. The desired damage state and structural deformations can be considered in design process. EBSD allows designers to select various performance objectives at different seismic intensities. A prototype building is designed using the proposed EBSD procedure. The performance of SCCF designed using EBSD is compared with the same prototype structure designed using direct displacement-based design method (DDBD). The results show that SCCF has high performance with low residual drift. The performance of the EBSD designed SCCF exhibits more controlled damage compared with the DDBD designed SCCF.