Design of an Essential Facility with Steel Moment Frames and Viscous Dampers Using US NEHRP Procedure

This paper presents the nonlinear seismic analysis, development, and implementation of an innovative seismic retrofit strategy for a six-story nonductile reinforced concrete 145,000-sf (13,470 m2) historic building. Dynamic and nonlinear static analytical results verified that the building had a weak soft-story with inadequate post-yield capacity, and large torsional response. The analysis indicated that the existing building is not seismically adequate to withstand anticipated lateral forces generated by earthquake excitations at the site. A “collapse prevention” performance upgrade for a 475-year return event was desired. Nonlinear fluid viscous dampers were placed at the first story level to reduce the seismic demand and obtain a more uniform response. Visco-elastic fluid viscous dampers were strategically placed at one side of the building to reduce the torsional irregularity of the building. The proposed cost effective, state-of-the-art retrofit will improve the seismic performance of the building.

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