Investigation of Damages in RC Frames Under Near Field Earthquakes Using a Damage Index

Heavy damages on structures caused by near field earthquakes in recent years has brought serious attention to this problem. An examination of previous records has shown significant differences for near field earthquakes, including a large energy pulse, unlike far field earthquakes. But as a general rule, the effects of near field earthquakes have been ignored in most building codes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of near field earthquakes on reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames. To achieve this goal, the Erduran damage index, an efficient way to calculate damage, was employed to analyze two 4- and 8-story RC moment frame buildings. The buildings with moderate and high ductility were designed by the strength criteria. Seven pairs of near field and far field earthquakes were scaled and used for dynamic nonlinear time history analysis. Using Erduran’s beam and column damage index, respectively, based on rotation and drift, the results from both near and far field earthquakes were compared. Moreover, for better assessment, 4-story buildings were evaluated from the performance based viewpoint of design. We observe from the results that most of the components of the structures under near field earthquakes sustained severe damages and in some cases even component failure. Components of the structures under near field earthquakes suffered from 30% more of damage, on average, than that under far field earthquakes.