1617.

4 - Equivalent Lateral Force Procedure for

Seismic Design of Buildings
cenews.com/article/4081/1617.4equivalent_lateral_force_procedure_for_seismic_design_of_buildings
October 2005 Columns CODE SIMPLE
The International Code Councils 2003 International Building Code (IBC) Section 1617.4 refers to the
American Society of Civil Engineers Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures.
S. K. Ghosh, Ph.D.
1617.4Equivalent Lateral Force Procedure for Seismic Design of Buildings
The International Code Councils 2003 International Building Code (IBC) Section 1617.4 refers to the
American Society of Civil Engineers Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 7-
02) Section 9.5.5 for the commonly used equivalent lateral force procedure. At the end of ASCE 7-02
Section 9.5.5, there is a very important, and often overlooked provision, which reads as follows:
For regular structures 5 stories or less in height and having a period, T, of 0.5 sec or less, the seismic
response coefficient, Cs, shall be permitted to be calculated using values of 1.5g and 0.6g, respectively, for
the mapped maximum considered earthquake spectral response accelerations Ss and S1.
This section allows lesser mapped spectral response acceleration values to be used in the case of regular
structures five stories or less in height having a period of 0.5 seconds or less. The darkened areas on the
maps in Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate those areas of the 48 contiguous states where the reduced values
apply.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
As most readers would recall, the Uniform
Building Code (UBC), which was published
by the International Council of Building
Officials, traditionally truncated the value of
the seismic zone factor, Z, to 0.4, thereby
truncating the effective peak acceleration to
0.4g. The performance record of structures
in UBC Seismic Zone 4, which satisfied the
restrictions in the paragraph quoted from
ASCE 7-02, has by and large been quite
satisfactory. The provision under
discussion essentially continues this truncation for structures that fall under this restriction. Effective peak
acceleration of 0.4g corresponding to the design earthquake of the UBC (10 percent probability of
nonexceedance in 50 years) is being taken equivalent to short- and long-period spectral response
accelerations corresponding to the Maximum Considered Earthquake of the IBC and ASCE 7 of 0.4g x 1.5
x 2.5 = 1.5g and 0.4g x 1.5 = 0.6g, respectively.
Answers to FAQs:
Q: My project is a two-story office building
of masonry (Seismic Use Group I) and is
located in a very seismically active city
where SS = 2.05g and S1 = 0.911g. The
site class is B and Fa = 1.0 and Fv = 1.0.
Because my building is less than five
stories and has a period less than 0.5
second, can I use SS = 1.5g and S1 = 0.6g
for the purpose of assigning the seismic
design category?
A: Yes, provided your structure is
regular.Table 1 provides a comparison of
seismic design category assignments for the different cases.