The effect of far- and near-field earthquakes on the collapse capacity of performance based optimization of RC moment frames

Performance-based design is a new approach to topics of the seismic design of structures, which unlike the traditional methods of force-based design, is based on changing the location of the structure. The use of this approach in the process of structure design results in the access to structures with proper performance and an acceptable level of reliability. The main goal of this contribution is to investigate the impact of near- and far- field earthquakes on the collapse capacity and fragility of performance based optimization of RC moment frames using the center of mass meta-heuristic algorithm. Push over analysis has been utilized in the optimization process to control the responses of the studied frames at functional levels and incremental dynamic analysis has been used to evaluate the fragility of the obtained optimal frames. According to the results for the collapse margin ratio and the adjusted collapse margin ratio for the 3-, 6-, and 12-story frames, it is indicated that the collapse margin ratio and therefore the seismic safety under far-field earthquakes are 7%, 16%, and 8% higher than those of the near-field earthquakes, respectively. In other words, the optimized frames in this study against near-field earthquakes have low seismic safety and more fragility than far-field earthquakes.