Improved Seismic Design Procedures and Evolutionary Tools

Abstract

Four alternative analytical procedures are recommended by the design codes for the structural analysis of buildings under earthquake loading. The objective of this chapter is to assess these procedures by integrating them in the framework of structural optimization. The evaluation is based on the European seismic design code, where procedures based on both linear and nonlinear response history analysis are adopted. In order to realistically simulate seismic actions, suites of both natural and artificial ground-motion records are used. For the solution of the optimization problem an evolutionary algorithm is adopted. The results obtained demonstrate the advantages of using more elaborate seismic design procedures, based on a detailed simulation of the structural behaviour and the applied seismic loading, as opposed to the commonly used simplified design methodologies. Designs with less material cost combined with better seismic performance are obtained when nonlinear response history analysis is performed.