Effective use of seismic response envelopes for reinforced concrete structures

• Published in: Earthquake engineering & structural dynamics Vol. 44; no. 14; pp. 2401 - 2423
• Main Authors: Sessa, Salvatore, Marmo, Francesco, Rosati, Luciano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Axial stress; envelope; Envelopes; Mathematical models; Reinforced concrete; reinforced concrete sections; response spectrum method; Seismic phenomena; Seismic response; Spectra; three-dimensional structure; ultimate limit state
• ISSN: 0098-8847; 1096-9845
• DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2587

Summary By exploiting the theory of the response envelopes formulated by Menun and Der Kiureghian [Envelopes for seismic response vectors. I–Theory, J. Str. Engrg. 2000; 126(3); 467–473], an algorithmic approach for seismic analysis of reinforced concrete frames is presented. It aims to fill a gap between research on spectral analysis of structures and current design practice in which the use of seismic response envelopes, available since early 2000s, is hampered by the lack of efficient and robust implementations. The proposed strategy is based on customary features (such as modal shapes and response spectra) currently adopted in professional practice, and it takes advantage of recently published formulations for the evaluation of stress resultants in arbitrarily shaped reinforced concrete cross‐sections subjected to axial force and biaxial bending. Numerical applications are illustrated in order to show the procedure's efficiency and effectiveness. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.