Simulated performance of steel moment-resisting frame buildings in the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake

Abstract

We simulate the response of 6 and 20 story steel moment-resisting frame buildings (US 1994 UBC) for ground motions recorded in the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake. We consider buildings with both perfect welds and also with brittle welds similar to those observed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Although existing short, strong buildings in Japanese towns performed well in this earthquake, our simulations indicate that flexible buildings would have been strongly excited by this earthquake. Simulated deformations are large enough in some basin regions that one could expect irreparable damage at many locations for both the 6- and 20-story buildings. In a few instances, the 20-story building with brittle welds experienced dangerously large deformations.

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