Displacement-Based Lateral Stiffness Design for Multi-Storey Structures Subject to Earthquake Motions

The determination of structural stiffness for the currently seismic design method depends on subjective experience of designers which is not rational and economical. A method that uses displacements as the basis for the stiffness design procedure is then presented: (1)By means of preliminary design, the initial elastic structure are obtained and the 1th mode shape, period etc are then calculated by modal analyses; (2) The target period and lateral equivalent stiffness of structure are determined according to target displacement used in seismic code; (3)The two periods for initial designed structure and target structure are compared and the lateral stiffness is adjusted to make the displacement responses of the structural weak members meet the limited displacements by adjustment parameter. An example is implemented for demonstrating the process and verifying the accuracy of the procedure.