5.1.

4 BUILDINGDRIFT ANDSEPARATION

Drift is generally defined as the lateral displacement of one floor relative to the floor below. Drift con-
trol is necessary to limit damage to interior partitions, elevator and stair enclosures, glass, and cladding
Seismic Design systems. Stress or strength limitations in ductile materials do not always provide
adequate drift control,

especially for tall buildings with relatively flexible moment-resisting frames or narrow shear walls.

Total building drift is the absolute displacement of any point relative to the base. Adjoining

buildings or adjoining sections of the same building may not have identical modes of response, and

therefore may have a tendency to pound against one another. Building separations or joints must be

provided to permit adjoining buildings to respond independently to earthquake ground motion.

5.2.8 DUCTILITY

It will soon become clear that in seismic design, all structures are designed for forces much smaller

than those the design ground motion would produce in a structure with completely linear-elastic

response. This reduction is possible for a number of reasons. As the structure begins to yield and

deform inelastically, the effective period of the response of the structure tends to lengthen, which for

many structures, results in a reduction in strength demand. Furthermore, the inelastic action results

in a significant amount of energy dissipation, also known as hysteretic damping. The effect, which

is also known as the ductility reduction, explains why a properly designed structure with a fully

yielded strength that is significantly lower than the elastic seismic force–demand can be capable of

providing satisfactory performance under the design ground-motion excitations.

The energy dissipation resulting from hysteretic behavior can be measured as the area enclosed

by the force-deformation curve of the structure as it experiences several cycles of excitation.

Some structures have far more energy-dissipation capacity than do others. The extent of energy-
dissipation capacity available is largely dependent on the amount of stiffness and strength deg-radation
that the structure undergoes as it experiences repeated cycles of inelastic deformation.

Figure 5.10 indicates representative load-deformation curves for two simple substructures, such

as beam-column assembly in a frame. Hysteretic curve in Figure 5.10a is representative of the

behavior of substructures that have been detailed for ductile behavior. The substructure can main-tain
nearly all of its strength and stiffness over a number of large cycles of inelastic deformation.

The resulting force-deformation “loops” are quite wide and open, resulting in a large amount of

energy-dissipation capacity. Hysteretic curve in Figure 5.10b represents the behavior of a sub-structure
that has not been detailed for ductile behavior. It rapidly loses stiffness under inelastic

deformation and the resulting hysteretic loops are quite pinched. The energy-dissipation capacity

of such a substructure is much lower than that for the substructure in Figure 5.10a. Hence struc-tural
systems with large energy-dissipation capacity are assigned higher Rvalues, resulting in

design for lower forces, than systems with relatively limited energy-dissipation capacity.
Ductility is the capacity of building materials, systems, or structures to absorb energy by deform-ing into
the inelastic range. The capability of a structure to absorb energy, with acceptable defor-mations and
without failure, is a very desirable characteristic in any earthquake-resistant design.

Concrete, a brittle material, must be properly reinforced with steel to provide the ductility necessary

to resist seismic forces. In concrete columns, for example, the combined effects of flexure (due to

frame action) and compression (due to the action of the overturning moment of the structure as a

whole) produce a common mode of failure: buckling of the vertical steel and spalling of the concrete

cover near the floor levels. Columns must, therefore, be detailed with proper spiral reinforcing or

hoops to have greater reserve strength and ductility.

Ductility may be evaluated by the hysteretic behavior of critical components such as a

column-beam assembly of a moment frame. It is obtained by cyclic testing of moment rotation

(or force-defl ection) behavior of the assembly. Ductility or hysteretic behavior may be considered

as an energy-dissipating mechanism due to inelastic behavior of the structure at large deformations.

The energy dissipated during cyclic deformations is given by the area of hysteric loop (see Figure

5.10a and b). The areas with in the loop may be full and fat, or lean and pinched. Structural assem-blies
with loops enclosing large areas representing large dissipated energy are regarded as superior

systems for resisting seismic loading.

FIGURE 5.10 Hysteric behavior: (a) curve representing large energy dissipation and (b) curve
representing

limited energy dissipation.

In providing for ductility, it should be kept in mind that severe penalties are imposed by seismic

provisions on structures with nonuniform ductility (see Figure 5.11).