Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Optimal Performance-
Based Seismic Design
Hamid Moharrami
Tarbiat Modares University, Iran
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the reader gets acquainted with the philosophy of performance-based design, its principles,
and an overview of the procedures for performance evaluation of structures. The essential prerequisites
of optimal performance-based design, including nonlinear analysis, optimization algorithms, and nonlin-
ear sensitivity analysis, are introduced. The methods of nonlinear analysis and optimization are briefly
presented, and the formulation of optimal performance-based design with emphasis on deterministic
type, rather than probabilistic- (or reliability)-based formulation is discussed in detail. It is revealed
how real performance-based design is tied to optimization, and the reason is given for why, without
optimization algorithms, multilevel performance-based design is almost impossible.
INTRODUCTION
tive meaning of
optimization
; i.e., the degree of
professionality of any engineering design can be
measured based on its degree of optimality. This
aspiration has been followed in two directions:
1) A better understanding from the behaviour of
structure for enhancing design knowledge and
2) Achieving the best (optimum) design in the
framework of structural design knowledge.
According to the archaeologists' discoveries the
ancient Egyptians believed that to keep a ceiling
safely supported by columns, the columns have
to have one third of area of the ceiling. Since
ever, the effort of engineers has been devoted to
minimizing the size of columns to retrieve more
space. This indicates that
engineering
has an intui-
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