A direct displacement-based seismic design procedure of inelastic structures

Abstract This paper presents a simple but efficient displacement-based seismic design procedure, which does not involve a substitute structure assuming a linear behavior and a viscous damping equivalent to the non-linear response. It is based on the formulations derived from the capacity-spectrum method using Newmark–Hall reduction factors for the inelastic demand spectrum. When applying such approach for a new design, no spectrum is needed to plot. From the derived formulations, the close relationship between the target displacement and the stiffness, ductility and strength demands of the structures are clearly shown. Multiple performance objectives can be considered easily in such a preliminary design procedure and it can be extended to MDOF systems adopting the idea of effective SDOF systems.