Formulation of a Conceptual Seismic Code

A new conceptual code format has been developed for earthquake-resistant design (EQ-RD) of buildings. It consists of: (1) guidelines for conceptual overall design of entire building systems and (2) a conceptual methodology for numerical EQ-RD of building systems in compliance with the worldwide-accepted EQ-RD philosophy and based on energy concepts, fundamental principles of structural dynamics, mechanical behavior of entire building facilities, and comprehensive design. The numerical EQ-RD methodology considers the desired seismic performance of the entire building system explicitly from the beginning of the EQ-RD process, and concludes by evaluating whether such performance would be achieved. A discussion of the main aspects and problems involved in the preliminary numerical EQ-RD procedure is presented.