EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN OF A DUCTILE RCC FRAME USING NEW ZEALAND CODE

Abstract

Ordinary buildings are designed for a small fraction (15-20 %) of the lateral loads expected to occur due to the Design Earthquake (defined as the level of ground shaking that has a 10 % probability of being exceeded in a 50-year period, i.e., a return period of 500 years). if the building response is linear- elastic. Thus, ordinary buildings are expected to reach their design strengths in much smaller earthquakes that can occur several times during their life. Other loads, such as dead loads, live loads and wind loads have a much lower probability of reaching their factored values. Thus, the probability of a structure reaching its limit states are much higher due to earthquakes. The Goal of Earthquake Resistant Design is to ensure that structural collapse does not occur even during the Maximum Earthquake (defined as the level of ground shaking that has a 5 % probability of being exceeded in a 50-year period, i.e., a return period of 1000 years). This goal can be achieved by ensuring that the building behaves in a ductile manner by following the Philosophy of Capacity Design developed in New Zealand. In this dissertation work, a three-storeyed frame is taken for earthquake resistant design using Indian codes of practice including the ductile detailing and then the same problem is dealt by using New Zealand codes of practice. The main purpose of study was to see the design approach of New Zealand codes of practice. The basic principles of New Zealand codes of practice have been discussed in the dissertation work.