Seismic Performance Evaluation of a School Gymnasium Using Static Anlysis

The seismic responses of small-scale spatial frames such as school gymnasiums are usually evaluated using static analysis, although time-history analysis should be carried out to fully incorporate the dynamic responses of the structures against seismic motions. In this study, advanced static analysis procedures arc presented for school gymnasiums that will improve the performance evaluation against seismic motions. The seismic loads are approximated by equivalent static loads corresponding to the two performance levels; i.e., Levels 1 and 2 defined by the Japanese building standard. The importance of utilizing the eigenmode in the load pattern is discussed. Simple static analysis procedures are presented for evaluation of maximum vertical acceleration. It is shown that the static analysis for Level 2 input significantly underestimates the responses by dynamic analysis; however, the inelastic responses for Level 2 are shown to be successfully evaluated using the equivalent linearization that is similar to the Dmethod based on calculation of limit strength for building frames in Japan.