Verification of Proposed Seismic Response Factors and Performance Assessment with the Economics of Code Designed High-Rise Steel Buildings

Seismic response factors do not offer uniform margin of safety and economy of buildings for different seismic regions. To verify these factors, four high-rise regular steel buildings, ranging from 8 to 20 stories are selected and designed according to current design codes. These factors are estimated using a number of inelastic pushover analyses (IPAs) and incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs), and their respective safety margins are assessed. The results indicated a possibility of increasing design response factors. The selected buildings are redesigned and their performances are assessed and verified using the proposed increase in seismic design response factors. Cost comparison between the code designed buildings and the proposed seismic design factor buildings is made. The proposed study provides comparisons of seismic response factors between the code-designed buildings and alternative proposed design for the range of the selected buildings along with their economic benefits. The recommendations of this study may provide practical insights to the designers and stake holders to achieve more cost-effective and optimistic designs on a wide range of high-rise steel buildings.