The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance of Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames (RCMRFs) subjected to lateral loads using nonlinear static procedure. For this purpose, nonlinear static analyses are performed to study RCMRFs representing low-rise, medium height, and high-rise structures. In nonlinear static procedure, ATC-40 (CSM), FEMA 356 (DCM), ASCE-41 (MDCM) and FEMA 440 (MCSM) methods were employed. Nonlinear responses corresponding to performance point were determined and used to evaluate the performance of RCMRFs. A damage criterion has been introduced which accounts for strength degradation. The methods provide rapid assessment of seismic damage evaluation for RC frames.

India had experienced many destructive earthquakes in the past. In these earthquakes, many human lives were lost and economic losses were incurred, and Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures were heavily damaged. The strongest reason behind this is lack of knowledge of earthquake-resistant design and inelastic behavior of RC structures (Goud and Pradeep, 2015). In the typical building design process, design professionals select proportion and detail building components to satisfy prescriptive criteria contained in the Indian seismic codes. The prescriptive criteria regulate the acceptable material and construction, identify approved structural and non-structural safety, specify required minimum levels of strength and stiffness and control the details of how a building is to be put together. Indian seismic codes intend to establish minimum requirements for providing safety to life and property from earthquakes and other hazards, but has a limitation to account for the inelastic cyclic deformation and cyclic loading effects (Mondal et al., 2013). This limitation allows buildings to experience repairable damages during minor and moderate earthquakes, but when they were subjected to strong earthquakes, experienced irreparable damages or they were collapsing. Therefore, it is important to measure the damage immediately after the earthquake to ensure the safety of a structure or move towards a predictive method of design (Murty et al., 2012). The need to communicate safety-related decision and to address inelastic behavior led to the development of Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) (FEMA 445, 2006).

Structural Engineering Journal, Performance-based seismic design, Capacity spectrum method, Damage index, Pushover analysis, Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames (RCMRFs)