Current Trends in the Seismic Design and Assessment of Buildings

Current trends in the seismic design and assessment of buildings are discussed, with emphasis on two procedures that merit some particular attention, displacement-based procedures and deformation-based procedures. A number of selected case-studies are summarised, involving reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings designed to the aforementioned procedures. Then, an overview of the currently available procedures for seismic assessment is presented and the different designs are assessed using state-of-the-art methods involving inelastic analysis of the static and/or dynamic type; alternative designs are compared in terms of economy and seismic performance, and sonic general conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of introducing the new procedures in seismic codes.