2006 Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 35-44
It is essential to introduce performance-based design systems and develop new technologies for meeting the social requirements of building structures. This paper begins by discussing the need for damage mitigation for building structures under performance-based design. Based on this concept, the application of a High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious composite (HPFRCC) device is introduced. This device is a HPFRCC short column reinforced with steel bars that has very high strength, stiffness and ductility compared with conventional RC columns with the same configuration and bar arrangement. An analytical study on the seismic response of a soft first story building with and without such HPFRCC devices was performed as a case study to investigate the feasibility of the proposed technique for damage mitigation against large earthquakes. The results indicate that HPFRCC devices can reduce the drift angle of the soft first story from 2% to 0.5% in the case of seismic input with maximum velocity normalized at 50 cm/s. Since a drift angle of 0.5% means an elastic response of the structure, HPFRCC devices are confirmed to have significant potential as a new structural technology for damage mitigation.
