Performance Based Seismic Design by Thaung Htut Aung

Webinar by Thaung Htut Aung, Director, AIT Solutions, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand on the topic “Performance Based Seismic Design – Designing for more resilient and less vulnerable buildings”.

The talk will be focusing on the concept and procedure of performance-based seismic design, particularly structural design of tall buildings.

Over the past 30 years, performance-based design technology has improved substantially.

Performance-based seismic design procedures enable engineers to design buildings with predictable seismic performance and to suggest enhanced performance objectives as a basis for design, relative to those underlying the contemporary building code.

When designing using prescriptive approaches, engineers do not actually evaluate the ability of the structure to perform as intended by the building code. Rather, the engineer is able to presume that because the building complies with the prescriptive requirements, this performance will be acheived. Performance-based procedures are also commonly used to permit the use of new technologies, materials, and systems that are not yet covered by the building code. These procedures are also used to design buildings that will be capable of superior performance to that intended by the prescriptive code requirements. Performance-based seismic design procedures have recently become the preferred approach for design of high-rise buildings in regions of high earthquake risk.