Influence of the Dead Loads in the Seismic Design of Ductile Frames of Reinforced Concrete

This paper evaluate the influence of the dead load reduction in the seismic design of a public building to be built at the zone of bigger seismic hazard of Cuba on a soil type D by Cuban seismic code NC 46:2017. The evaluation was carried out by comparing the structural design of a heavy and a lightened variant, based on the design of the critical sections of the superstructure including the joints. The seismic solicitations by static equivalent method are offered by computers program SAP 2000NL version and combined with gravitational loads by actual Cuban code. The structural design was carried out by the limit resistant capacity method, using the Excel Workbook DISRESPLAS and consulting the design formulations in international reference standards. Finally, it is shown that a moderate reduction of dead load significantly rationalizes the structural design and simplifies the construction details, in particular, the joints.