Sicherheitsreserven und Konservativitäten in der normgerechten Erdbebenauslegung von Stahlbetonbauwerken

Safety margins and conservatisms in the seismic design of reinforced concrete buildings

The seismic design of buildings in Germany and in most other countries of the world is a deterministic approach using a single code specified design earthquake. The design objective is generally to prevent loss of life by structural collapse. The question is, what will happen in case of a probable earthquake exceeding the design earthquake or in case of possible aftershocks. The past shows, that in most cases the evolution and update of seismic codes is associated with higher earthquakes to be used for design. Now, is there an imminent danger for the existing buildings designed according to a previous code? The objective of this paper is to identify and quantify some of the safety margins inherent in the seismic design of reinforced concrete buildings. In particular, the influences of earthquake energy, soil-structure interaction and cracking and nonlinear material behavior of buildings during earthquake are investigated.