Seismic drift and ductility demands and their dependence on ground motions

Implementation of performance-based earthquake engineering necessitates the probabilistic evaluation of engineering demand parameters that can be related to variables, such as monetary losses, on which quantitative seismic performance assessment can be based. The purpose of this paper is to identify relevant demand parameters, quantify these parameters for regular frame structures, and illustrate how statistically representative relationships between these parameters and ground motion intensity measures can be established. Emphasis is on the development of such relationships for ordinary ground motions, and on issues that have to be addressed in order to establish relationships between demand parameters and near-fault ground motions.