Stiffness-Strength-Ductility Design Approaches

This paper presents an innovative approach for the seismic design of structures which, focusing directly upon the performance objectives, identifies the characteristics of the lateral (horizontal) resisting system considered completely separated (and consequently highly specialized) from the vertical one. The structural seismic performances being determined either upon strength and resistance or displacement capabilities of the lateral system, depending upon the limit state considered. The approach here introduced allows to exploit at their best both the traditional force design method and the more recent direct displacement design approach.