Estimating displacement demand in reinforced concrete frames using some failure criteria

Under seismic loads on structures, the maximum drift without total collapse is called target displacement. Most of low- and medium-rise building structures are seismically designed using equivalent static method. In equivalent static method, design forces are obtained from elastic spectra which are reduced using response modification factor. This coefficient represents the structures’ inelastic performance and indicates strength and hidden ductility of structures in inelastic phase. The ultimate deformation of the structure to its deformation in yielding is called ductility coefficient which expresses the inelastic deformation capacity of structures. The larger this coefficient, the higher the level of energy absorption and the more the formation of plastic joints, so accurate determination of yielding points and ultimate displacements are very important. In this paper some failure criteria are used to estimate seismic demands for buildings. To investigate these criteria, pushover analysis is done on reinforced concrete frame buildings. Using a combination of these criteria will lead to displacements that are closed to the target displacement presented in FEMA-356.