Sustainable Seismic Design of Structures

AbstractThe main purpose of Sustainable seismic design (SSD) is to ensure the functionality of structural systems after severe earthquakes. SSD compares and analyses current and projected states of response for changing natural conditions. It has been devised to control seismic behavior, repairs and replacement of existing parts, optimization of shapes, sizes and energy dissipation as planned. If nature were to design an earthquake resistant structure (ERS) it would probably resort to SSD and Performance Control (PC) rather than conventional methods of approach. Unlike conventional methodologies, SSD also addresses the possibilities of post-earthquake realignment and repairs (PERR) of purpose specific ERSs. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that resilient ERSs can be materialized, through emulation of SSD without resorting to untenable costs and technologies. In the interim a number of relatively new ideas including Structures of Uniform construction, Multifunction detailing, and the Fail-safe (FS) concept have also been introduced.