Adjustment of minimum seismic shear coefficient considering site effects for long-period structures

Minimum seismic base shear is a key factor employed in the seismic design of long-period structures, which is specified in some of the major national seismic building codes viz. ASCE7-10, NZS1170.5 and GB50011-2010. In current Chinese seismic design code GB50011-2010, however, effects of soil types on the minimum seismic shear coefficient are not considered, which causes problems for long-period structures sited in hard or rock soil to meet the minimum base shear requirement. This paper aims to modify the current minimum seismic shear coefficient by taking into account site effects. For this purpose, effective peak acceleration (EPA) is used as a representation for the ordinate value of the design response spectrum at the plateau. A large amount of earthquake records, for which EPAs are calculated, are examined through the statistical analysis by considering soil conditions as well as the seismic fortification intensities. The study indicates that soil types have a significant effect on the spectral ordinates at the plateau as well as the minimum seismic shear coefficient. Modified factors related to the current minimum seismic shear coefficient are preliminarily suggested for each site class. It is shown that the modified seismic shear coefficients are more effective to the determination of minimum seismic base shear of long-period structures. (paper)