Development and Verification of the Capacity Curve for Two Dimensional Reinforced Concrete Moment-Resisting Frames System under Earthquake Loading

Abstract

Pushover analysis is an efficient method for the seismic evaluation of buildings under severe earthquakes. This paper aims to develop and verify the pushover analysis methodology for reinforced concrete frames. This technique depends on a nonlinear representation of the structure by using SAP2000 software. The properties of plastic hinges will be defined by generating the moment-curvature analysis for all the frame sections (beams and columns). The verification of the technique above was compared with the previous study for two-dimensional frames (4-and 7-story frames). The former study leaned on automatic identification of positive and negative moments, where the concrete sections and steel reinforcement quantities the source of these moments. The comparison of the results between the two methodologies was carried out in terms of capacity curves. The results of the conducted comparison highlighted essential points. It was included the potential differences between default and user-defined hinge properties in modeling. The effect of the plastic hinge length and the transverse of shear reinforcement on the capacity curves was also observed. Accordingly, it can be considered that the current methodology in this paper more logistic in the representation of two and three-dimensional structures.