Comparison between seismic performance of different design philosophies by means of loss assessment analysis

The current recommended seismic design philosophy establish that a structure in order to overcome an earthquake without to collapse it should face the seismic event by producing a series of plastic hinges so to dissipate part of the seismic energy with an hysteretic behaviour typically associated to relevant damages at both structural and nonstructural elements. In the present paper is reported the comparison of the seismic response of a multistorey framed building designed following two different criteria. The first, following the common practice of the capacity design, bring to a structure able to spread dissipation and damage on several floors (widespread damaging approach). Instead, in the second structure designed following a modified version of the capacity design procedure, the degradation involves only the elements of few floors (concentrated damaging approach). At the beginning the two different design philosophies and the two resulting structures are introduced. Then, by means of the seismic performance assessment methodology, the comparison between the two seismic building responses is provided in terms of expected losses, both economical and in terms of human lives. The subject of research is extremely innovative and, for some class of buildings, seems to be very promising and perhaps convenient.