Performance of Concrete MRF at Near-Field Earthquakes Compared to Far-Field Earthquakes

The characteristic of near-field earthquake records has been investigated in the previous studies. However, the effects of the near-field earthquakes on the response of the building structures need to be further investigated. Engineering demand parameters like inter-story drift ratio and floor acceleration can provide a good means for comparing the response of structures to the near-field and the far-field earthquakes. The main objective of this paper was to apply these two parameters to compare the behavior of the concrete Moment Resistant Frame (MRF) subjected to near-field and far-field ground motions. In this study, non-linear numerical simulations were performed on concrete MRF office buildings subjected to two sets of 14 near-field records and 14 far-field records. The analytical models simulated 4-story, 8-story, and 16 story buildings. The obtained results indicated that the near-field effects can increase the inter-story drift ratio and floor acceleration at lower stories of low and mid-rise building subjected to high ground motion intensities.