THE APPLICATION OF PUSH-OVER ANALYSIS IN SEISMIC DESIGN OF BUILDING STRUCTURES PROCEDURES

The development of the seismic analysis procedures has proven that the displacement-based seismic design method will be gradually incorporated in the seismic design codes in near future. Recently, push-over analysis, as the kernel of the displacement-based design method, has been required in the Chinese code for seismic design of buildings (GB 50011-2001) for analysis of the structures with plan or vertical irregularities. Following a brief review on the history of seismic analysis procedures in China, the seismic design method of a tall buildings with out-of-plane offset, diaphragm discontinuity and in-plane discontinuity in vertical lateral-force-resisting elements is given in this paper to illustrate the application of push-over analysis. The results of push-over analysis show that the structure yielded earlier at the edge of long narrow cut and large deformations would consequently occur as the pushing force increased. The long slit is a weak place to resist the seismic ground motion and has great effects to structural capability of damage restriction and collapse prevention after the corner elements around it yielded. It could be concluded that the push-over analysis should be used for seismic design of the structures with irregularities. It will help structural engineers in identifying hidden weak points in a structure when conducting the seismic design.