ABSTRACT
A deformation-based procedure for the seismic design of buildings with ductile reinforced concrete structural walls is proposed. Firstly, emphasis is given to the conceptual design of the whole building consisting of beamless flat slabs, thin columns, a few relatively slender structural walls and non-structural elements. The preliminary design of the structure performed by simple hand calculations starts from acceptable deformations. The deformation criterion is the acceptable storey drift resulting either from the damage limit state of partition walls and facade elements under the serviceability earthquake or from the structural ultimate limit state under the ultimate design earthquake. The acceptable storey drift yields the required stiffness of the whole system. From the estimated contribution of frame action to the system stiffness, the required stiffness of the walls is readily determined. Consequently the required wall dimensions can be calculated. After checking simple strength and ductility criteria the walls can be designed and detailed following the “classical” capacity design method. The proposed deformation-based procedure leads directly to the design goal and avoids laborious iterations with regard to acceptable deformations.
