ABSTRACT
Today, there is increasing interest in Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD): the challenge is to build structures in which the acceptable leve l of damage caused by an earthquake is predetermined and life safety ensured. From a standa rds perspective, this requires a reliable design method that as far as possible relates the building perform ance and dam age to the intensity of ground motion. The Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) presented by Priestley et al. in their book (Priestley et al. 2007) is a design m ethod that can be used for PBSD of structures. In DDBD, the displacement is considered as a performance parameter to use when designing structural members.
