Seismic energy demands on reinforced concrete moment‐resisting frames

Abstract This paper examines the seismic energy demands on reinforced concrete ductile moment‐resisting frames. Three frames having 4, 10 and 18 storeys, representing low, medium and tall frames, were designed to the current Canadian seismic provisions and structural design requirements. Three groups of earthquake records having different frequency contents were selected as input ground motions. The input, hysteretic and damping energies were evaluated for these three frames and correlation was established with other response parameters. The use of equivalent single‐degree‐of‐freedom systems to estimate the energy demands on these frames was examined in order to simplify the computational effort. It is shown that the energy demand concept together with the equivalent single‐degree‐of‐freedom system is a viable design approach for low‐rise frames. Additional research to allow for the higher modal effect is required before the same concept can be extended to medium and tall frames.