UBC Seismic Serviceability Regulations: Critical Review
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 117, Issue 7
Abstract
This paper discusses the widely accepted seismic design limit state philosophy and the serviceability limit state requirements for stress and drift controls in the 1988 UBC. The limit state philosophy implemented in the UBC is compared with that in the Japanese code. Although the service (or moderate) design earthquake is explicitly specified in the Japanese code, this design earthquake is indirectly assumed in the UBC by specifying a drift limit that is inversely proportional to the factor. The study shows that UBC cannot control the level of stress in steel building structures for service design earthquakes; the allowable seismic stress implied by UBC was found to be too high for ductile structures and too low for structures of limited ductility. The UBC story drift limit of (or may be too high, and the drift limit of 0.005 (or 0.004) is too conservative for buildings with low values.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 117 • Issue 7 • July 1991
Pages: 2055 - 2068
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 ASCE.
History
Published online: Jul 1, 1991
Published in print: Jul 1991
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