About the author  ⁄ P. Benson Shing, Ph.D.

P. Benson Shing is a Professor of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego. (pshing@ucsd.edu)

Seismic Design and Performance

While they meet the safety requirement of building codes, special reinforced masonry wall systems designed according to current codes and practice may not perform in the manner consistent with the design expectation in the event of a major earthquake. This stems from the fact that seismic design provisions focus primarily on strength and reinforcement details, without sufficient consideration of the actual behavior of a wall system under severe seismic actions. To have a consistent level of safety and performance, a performance-based design approach may be followed to ensure that the structural system performs predictably. This article summarizes some recent research findings that may help this design process.

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NEHRP Technical Brief for Designers

Under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the stewardship of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Applied Technology Council (ATC) and the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE) have jointly prepared an excellent series of ten succinct and practical seismic design guides for practicing engineers, available for free online.

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STRUCTURE magazine