Seismic performance of concrete moment resisting frame buildings in Canada

The seismic provisions of the current edition (2005) of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) differ significantly from the earlier edition. The current seismic provisions are based on the uniform hazard spectra corresponding to 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, as opposed to the seismic hazard level with 10% probablity of exeedance in 50 years used in the earlier edition. Moreover, the current code is presented in an objective-based format where the design is performed based on an acceptable solution. In the light of these changes, an assessment of the expected performance of the buildings designed according to the requirements of the current edition of NBCC would be very useful. In this paper, the seismic performance of a set of six, twelve, and eighteen story buildings of regular geometry and with concrete moment resisting frames, designed for Vancouver western Canada, has been evaluated. Although the effects of non-structural elements are not considered in the design, the non-structural elements connected to the lateral load resisting systems affect the seismic performance of a building. To simulate the non-structural elements, infill panels are included in some frame models. Spectrum compatible artificial ground motion records and scaled actual accelerograms have been used for evaluating the dynamic response. The performance has been evaluated for each building under various levels of seismic hazard with different probabilities of exceedance. From the study it has been observed that, although all the buildings achieved the life-safety performance as assumed in the design provisions of the building code, their performance characteristics are found to be non-uniform.