Rational Procedure for Damage Based Serviceability Design of Steel Buildings Under Wind Loads and a Simple Linear Response History Procedure for Building Codes

This thesis is divided into two topics: the development of a procedure for wind serviceability design of steel buildings and the development of a simple linear response history analysis for building codes.

In the United States the building codes are generally silent on the issue of serviceability. This has led to a wide variation in design practices related to service level wind loads. Chapter 2 of this thesis contains a literature review which discusses pertinent aspects of wind drift serviceability, including selecting the mean recurrence interval (MRI), mathematical modeling of the structure, and establishment of rational deformation limits. Chapter 3 contains a journal article submitted to Engineering Journal which describes the recommended procedure for damage based wind serviceability design of steel structures. The procedure uses a broad range of MRIs, bases damage measurement on shear strains, includes all sources of deformation in the model, and bases deformation limits on fragility curves.

Chapter 4 of this thesis contains a literature review which examines issues related to performing linear response history analysis. Chapter 5 contains a conference paper submitted to the Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering which serves as a position paper promoting the inclusion of a linear response history analysis procedure in future editions of the NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions and ASCE 7. The procedure address the following issues: selection and scaling of ground motions, the use of spectral matched ground motions, design for dependent actions, and the scaling of responses with the response modification coefficient (R) and the deflection amplification factor (Cd).