No. 160 bis.1983. Model Code for Seismic Design of Concrete Structures - Vol. 2: Trial Calculations
This Bulletin collects four documents , all of them dealing with trial applications of the Model Code for Seismic Design of Concrete Structures (Bull . N. 160) to framed or wall structures .
The idea of having recourse to numerical applications as an effective means for assisting in the development of the seismic document dates back to its first draft issued in March, 1980 .
A considerable amount of work has been spent in the last three years in a careful choice of the examples , the planning and the execution of the applications, the transfer of the results back to the text of the Code, and for the necessary subsequent redesigns .
The benefits, however, did more than live up to the expectations. The regulatory document stands now backed by a body demonstrative applications, which allow to judge on its practicability, consistency and flexibility for use.
These applications have helped the code in the making: they will serve to facilitate the embodiment of future improvements as well .
A second fundamental purpose of the applications deserves now to be pointed out. For the final form of presentati on the material of each contribution has been arranged so as to make it as readable and logically sequential as possible: the aim was to produce a document that could also be used as a commented guide of application of the Seismic Code .
If th is aim has been achieved in some measure, the Code user would find in the reading of Bu ll . n. 160 the usefulness of a design manual and at the same time a critical appraisal of the results obtainable .
Two of the contributions, one concerning frames, the second one wall structures, contain non- linear dynamic analyses of Code- designed structures: they have been developed both to illustrate and to check general response behavior and uniformity of structural reliability.
It was felt that the inclusion of these analyses in the document could have positive educational effects, since only rarely will the common Code user have the occasion of performing and looking at the resul ts of analyses in the range approaching collapse. Observation of the progressive installment and spreading of the sources of energy dissipation, their location along the structure and the amount of ductility demanded to each of them, can help the designer in acquiring a 'feeling' for seismic design that only a formal knowledge of the Code is unsufficient to provide .
In closing, I take great pleasure in giving the Authors of the four contributions: Prof. L. Bri seghella and Dr . P. Zaccari a of the Uni ersity of Padua, Dr. E. Cansado de Carvalho and Dr. Erna Coelho of Laboratori o Nacional de Engenhari a Civil in Li sbon , Prof. G. Koeni g and Dr. H. Klei n of the Technical Universi ty of Darmstadt , and Dr. C. Nuti and Dr. F. Ortolani of the University of Rome, full credit for a work done with a competent mind and a liberal attitude.
The reporter of CEB Task Group "Seismic Design"
Paolo Emilio Pinto
