Performance-Based Seismic Design of Tall Buildings

Prof. Jack Moehle

Ed and Diane Wilson Presidential Professor of Structural Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

We live in a time when social, environmental, and economic factors in the Western United States favour the development of urban centres populated by high-rise buildings. The design of this new generation of high-rise buildings has benefited from the advancement of performance-based design methods in which structural engineers characterize expected performance for hypothesized earthquake shaking using computer simulation. The design approach has evolved rapidly – whereas a decade ago each project had its own, project-specific basis, today the designs are guided by a set of consensus standards. The seminar will describe the performance-based design approach and will illustrate it through the example of a tall building design in San Francisco.

Biography

Jack Moehle received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and joined the U.C. Berkeley faculty in 1980. From 1991 to 2001 he was Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at Berkeley, and in 1996 he became founding Director of the multi-university Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, where he served until 2008. He has played a leading role in the development of building codes and professional engineering guidelines for the design of new construction and the assessment and rehabilitation of seismically vulnerable existing construction, including Guidelines for Evaluation and Repair of Masonry and Concrete Walls (FEMA 306); Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings (FEMA 273 and ASCE 41); Development of Next-Generation Performance-Based Seismic Design Procedures for New and Existing Buildings (FEMA P-58); and Guidelines for Performance-Based Seismic Design of Tall Buildings (Tall Buildings Initiative, PEER). He has been a member of the ACI 318 Building Code Committee since 1989, Chair of the Seismic Provisions subcommittee from 1995-2014, and currently serves as the ACI 318 Chair. He is also author of the textbook Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings published by McGraw-Hill.