Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers 1

JOURNAL OF
CIVIL
ENGINEERING
RESEARCHERS

Pushover analysis of a reinforced concrete frame structure for

seismic performance assessment using SAP 2000

Reyhaneh Ezojia
a
Islamic Azad University ,Chaloos, Iran

Abstract

The existing building can become seismically deficient since seismic code requirements are constantly upgraded and
advancement in engineering knowledge. A seismic performance evaluation was conducted for a four-story reinforced concrete
(RC) residential building. The structural response is evaluated using pushover analysis. The FEMA 356 and FEMA 440
criteria were used to evaluate the seismic performance of the case study building. The calculated values related to the
performance of the buildings indicate whether the response of the existing building is sufficient and if rehabilitat ion is
required.

© 2017 Journals-Researchers. All rights reserved

Keywords: Performance assessment, Existing reinforced concrete building, Nonlinear static procedure, Pushover analysis, SAP2000.

In particular, the seismic rehabilitation of older

concrete structures in high seismicity areas is a
1. Introduction matter of growing concern, since structures
venerable to damage must be identified and an
A large number of existing buildings in zone-III acceptable level of safety must be determined.
is need seismic evaluation due to various reasons Before rehabilitation work, it is necessary to
such as noncompliance with the criterial understand the capacity of the existing building to
requirements, updating of codes, design practice check if it meets the intended performance level. To
and change the use of the building. make such assessment, simplified linear-elastic
——— methods are not adequate. Thus, the structural

Corresponding author. e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
2 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers

engineering community has developed a new would be experienced by the structure when
generation of design and seismic procedures that subjected to ground shaking. Under incrementally
incorporate performance based structures and is increasing loads various structural elements may
moving away from simplified linear elastic methods yield sequentially. Consequently, at each event, the
and towards a more nonlinear technique. Recent structure experiences a loss in stiffness. Using a
interests in the development of performance based pushover analysis, a characteristic non-linear force
codes for the design or rehabilitation of buildings in displacement relationship can be determined [3].
seismic active areas show that an inelastic
procedure commonly referred to as the pushover
analysis is a viable method to assess damage 3. Pushover Analysis
vulnerability of buildings. Basically, a pushover
analysis is a series of incremental static analysis After assigning all properties of the models, the
carried out to develop a capacity curve for the displacement –controlled pushover analysis of the
building. Based on the capacity curve, a target models are carried out. The models are pushed in
displacement which is an estimate of the monotonically increasing order until target
displacement that the design earthquake will displacement is reached or structure loses
produce on the building is determined. The extent equilibrium; whichever occurs first. For this
of damage experienced by the structure at this target purpose, target displacement at roof level and
displacement is considered representative of the number of steps in which this displacement must be
damage experienced by the building when subjected defined. In this study, target displacement is taken
to design level ground shaking [1]. 4% of building height. Pushover curve is a base
The Nonlinear static procedure in these shear force versus roof displacement curve. The
documents is based on the capacity spectrum peak of this curve represents maximum lateral load
method, and assumes that the lateral force carrying capacity of the structure. The initial
distribution for the pushover analysis and the stiffness of the structure is obtained from the
conversion of the results of the capacity diagram is tangent at pushover curve at zero load level. The
based only on the fundamental vibration mode of collapse is assumed when structure losses its 75%
the elastic structure. This paper described SAP2000 strength and corresponding roof displacement is
is used in performing a pushover analysis of a called ―maximum roof displacement‖.
simple three dimensional building [2]. SAP2000 has It is a plot drawn between base shear and roof
static pushover analysis capabilities which are fully displacement. Performance point and location of
integrated into the program; allow quick and easy hinges in various stages can be obtained from
implementation of the pushover procedures for both pushover curve as shown in Fig.1. The range AB is
two and three dimensional buildings. elastic range, B to IO is the range of immediate
The main objective of this study is to evaluate occupancy IO to LS is the range of life safety and
the seismic performance of an existing RC building LS to CP is the range of collapse prevention. The
designed according to the Iranian code. Different Building performance levels are shown in
table 1.

2. Pushover Methodology

A pushover analysis is performed by subjecting a

structure to a monotonically increasing pattern of
lateral loads, representing the inertial forces which
 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers 3

Fig.1 Different stages of plastic hinge

Table1. Different performance levels in building

Collapse Immediate Occupancy

Prevention Life safety level Operational Level
Level Level
Overall
Severe Moderate light Very light
Damage
Little residual No permanent drift;
stiffness and structure
No permanent drift.
strength, but load substantially
Structure substantially
bearing Columns Some residual Strength and Retains original
retains original
and walls stiffness left in all stories. Gravity- strength and
Strength and stiffness.
function. Large load-bearing elements function. No stiffness. Minor
Minor cracking of
permanent drifts. Out-of-plane failure of walls or cracking of facades,
General facades, partitions, and
Some exits tipping of parapets. Some partitions, and
ceilings as well as
blocked. Infills permanent drift. Damage to ceilings as well as
structural elements.
and unbraced partitions. Building may be beyond structural elements.
Elevators can be
Parapets failed or economical repair. All Systems
restarted. Fire
at incipient important to normal
protection operable.
failure. Building operation are
is near collapse functional.
Equipment and Negligible damage
Falling hazards mitigated but many contents are generally occurs. Power and
Non- structural Extensive
architectural, mechanical, and secure, but may not other utilities are
Components damage.
electrical systems operate due to available, possibly
mechanical from
force level, the pushover force is again increased and
the displacement begins to increase again.
When a hinge reaches point C on its force- If all the hinges are within the CP limit then the
displacement curve that hinge must begin to drop structure is said to be safe. However, depending upon
the importance of structure the hinges after IO range
load. The way load is dropped from a hinge that may also need to be retrofitted.
has reached point C is that the pushover force (base
shear) is reduced until the force in that hinge is
consistent with the force at point D. As the force is
dropped, all elements unload, and the displacement is
reduced. Once the yielded hinge reaches the Point D
4 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers

4. Description of the Case Study Building 5. Nonlinear Plastic Hinges Properties

The four-story building is considered in this study. The building has to be modeled to carry out
This structure is designed according to Iranian Code nonlinear static pushover analysis. This requires
and is located in Zone III. The material Properties are the development of the force - deformation curve for
240 MPa concrete, AⅢ steel for the longitudinal and the critical sections of beams and columns by using
AⅡ transverse reinforcement. The plan layout is the guidelines [4]. The force deformation curves in
shown in fig 2. The typical floor height is 3.2 m and flexure were obtained from the reinforcement details
the details of beams and columns are shown in and were assigned for all the beams and columns.
Table2. In the analysis, Young’s modulus and unit The Nonlinear properties of beams and columns have
weight of concrete are taken to be 28000- 30000 MPa been evaluated using the section designer and have
and 25 KN/m3, respectively. The damping ratio is been assigned to the computer model in SAP2000. A
assumed as 5% in all modes. three-dimensional model of each structure has been
created to undertake the non-linear analysis. The
loading structure shown in fig 3. The flexural default
hinges (M3) were assigned to the beams at two ends.
The interacting (P-M2-M3) frame hinges type a
coupled hinge property was also assigned for all the
columns at upper and lower ends [5]. Properties and
recommends PMM hinges for columns and M3
hinges for beams as described in FEMA-356 and
FEMA-440.

Fig.2 plan of building

Table 2. Details of beams and columns

Fig.3 The loading structure
Story Beam Column
1 0.45x0.45 m 0.45x0.45 m
2&3 0.4x0.4 m 0.4x0.4 m
4 0.35x0.35 m 0.35x0.35 m
 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers 5

6. Result and Discussion

6.1. General
6.3. Plastic hinges mechanisms
A four storied reinforced concrete frame was
taken for the investigation. The frame was subjected Plastic hinges formation for the building
to design earthquake forces as specified in the Iranian mechanisms have been obtained at different
code for zone III along X and Y directions. The displacement levels. The hinging patterns are plotted
responses of the frames are discussed in the below. at different levels in figures 6 to11. Plastic hinges
formation starts with beam ends and base columns of
6.2. Pushover curve lower stories, then propagates to upper stories and
continue with yielding of interior intermediate
The resulting pushover curve for the four-story columns in the upper stories. But since yielding
building from FEMA-356 and FEMA-440 are shown occurs at events B, IO and LS respectively, the
in fig 4 and 5 respectly. Curves are initially linear but amount of damage in the building will be limited.
start to deviate from linearity as the beams and
columns undergo inelastic actions. When the building
is pushed well into the inelastic range, the curve
become linear again but with a smaller slope. The
curve could be approximated by a bilinear
relationship. From FEMA-356 a target displacement
of 0.184 m, the base shear of the structure was
1216.654 KN. From FEMA-440 a target
displacement of 0.196 m, the base shear of the
structure was 1234.906 KN.

Fig5. Capacity curve FEMA-440

Fig4. Capacity curve FEMA-356

6 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers

Fig6. Deformed shape of the frame at Step3

Fig8. Deformed shape of the frame at Step9

Fig7. Deformed shape of the frame at Step5 Fig9. Deformed shape of the frame at Step15
 Journal of Civil Engineering Researchers 7

loading. As such it cannot represent dynamic

phenomena with a large degree of accuracy. It
may not detect some important deformation modes
that may occur in a structure subjected to severe
earthquakes, and it may exaggerate others.
Inelastic dynamic response may differ
significantly from predictions based on invariant
or adaptive static load patterns, particularly if
higher mode effects become important.
6. Thus performance of pushover analysis primarily
depends upon choice of material models included
in the study.
7. It would be desirable to study more cases before
reaching definite conclusions about the behaviour
of reinforced concrete frame buildings.

References

[1] P. Poluraju, P. V. S. Nageswara Rio, International Journal of

Earth Sciences and Engineering, Volume 04, No. 06 SPL,
October 2011.
[2] Ashraf Habibullah, S.E., and Stephen S.E, Published in
Fig10. Deformed shape of the frame at Step18 structure magazine winter, 1998.
[3] A. Kadid, A. Boumrkik, Asian journal of civil engineering
(BUILDING AND HOUSING) Vol. 9, No. 1 (2008).
[4] FEMA 356, Prestandard and commentary for the seismic
rehabilitation of buildings, American society of civil
7. CONCLUSIONS engineers, Reston VA, 2000.
[5] A. Vijayakumar, D. L. Venkatesh Baba, European Journal of
The performance of reinforced concrete frames Scientific Research,Vol.71 No.2, 2012.
[6] Applied Technology Council, ATC-40. Seismic evaluation and
was investigated using the pushover Analysis. These
retrofit of concrete Buildings, California, 1996; vols1 & 2
are the conclusions drawn from the analyses: [7] SAP2000, Computers and Structures, Inc.
1. The pushover analysis is a relatively simple way
to explore the non-linear behaviour of Buildings
2. The behaviour of properly detailed reinforced
concrete frame building is adequate as Indicated
by the intersection of the demand and capacity
curves and the distribution of Hinges in the beams
and the columns. Most of the hinges developed in
the beams
3. The causes of failure of reinforced concrete
during the earthquake may be attributed to the
quality of the materials
4. The results obtained in terms of demand, capacity
and plastic hinges gave an insight into the real
behaviour of structures
5. It must be emphasized that the pushover analysis
is approximate in nature and is based on static