Building Period Formulas For Estimating Seismic Displacements

TECHNICAL NOTE
Building Period Formulas for Estimating Seismic

Displacements
Anil K. Chopra, M. EERI and Rakesh K. Goel, M. EERI

Traditionally, empirical formulas for building period recommended for code
applications are intentionally calibrated to underestimate the period in order to
estimate base shear conservatively. At a shorter period, the seismic displacements
are smaller, however, and hence underestimated. This note discusses this issue
and recommends formulas for estimating seismic displacements of buildings.
INTRODUCTION
The fundamental vibration period of a building appears in the equation specified in
building codes to calculate the design base shear and lateral forces. To estimate the period,
building codes provide empirical formulas that depend on the building material (steel, R/C,
etc.), building type (frame, shear wall, etc.), and overall dimensions. These formulas are
typically calibrated to underestimate the periods so that the pseudo-acceleration (Figure 1)
and seismic forces are overestimated. At a shorter period, the seismic displacements are
smaller (Figure 1), however, and hence underestimated. The purpose of this note is to discuss
this issue and recommend formulas for estimating seismic displacements of buildings.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
1
2
3
4
Natural vibration period T
n
, sec
P
s
e
u
d
o
a
c
c
e
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n

A
,

g
= 2%
5%
10%
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
50
100
150
200
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
50
100
150
200
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
50
100
150
200
D
e
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n

D
,

c
m
= 2%
5%
10%

Figure 1. Elastic pseudo-acceleration and deformation spectra for ground motions with g
ugo
1 = ! ! ,
cm/sec 122 =
ugo
! and cm 4 . 91 =
ugo
.

(AKC) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
(RKG) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis
Obispo, CA 93407.

MOMENT-RESISTING FRAME BUILDINGS
Obviously, any empirical formula should be based on periods of buildings measured
from their motions recorded during earthquakes. The most relevant data are from structures
shaken strongly but not deformed significantly into the inelastic range. Figures 2 and 3 show
such data for 42 Steel Moment-Resisting Frame (MRF) buildings and 27 Reinforced-
Concrete (R/C) MRF buildings in California derived from their recorded motions during
several earthquakes starting with the 1971 San Fernando earthquake (Goel and Chopra,
1997b); the measured periods in two orthogonal lateral directions are shown by circles
connected by a vertical line. The best-fit curve, labeled as
TR
, comes from regression
analysis to determine and in the equation relating period T to height H of the building:
H
T
= . Also included are two other curves:

TL
which represents the best-fit minus one
standard deviation curve (referred to as the best-fit 1 curve), and
TU
, the best-fit plus one
standard deviation curve (referred to as the best-fit + 1 curve). These figures give an
impression of the scatter in the data of the measured periods relative to the curves from
regression analysis. As expected, the data fall above and below the best-fit curve, more or
less evenly, and most of the data are above the best-fit 1 curve and below the best-fit + 1
curve.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Height H, ft
P
e
r
i
o
d

T
,

s
e
c
Steel MRF Buildings
T
R
= 0.035H
0.80
T
U
= 0.045H
0.80
T
L
= 0.028H
0.80

Figure 2. Results of regression analysis for Steel MRF buildings.
Traditionally, empirical formulas for building period recommended for code applications
are intentionally calibrated to underestimate the period in order to estimate base shear
conservatively. Based on the measured data, the best-fit 1 curves were recommended
for estimating the building period (Goel and Chopra, 1997a):
H TL
80 . 0
028 . 0 = Steel Buildings
(1)
H TL
90 . 0
016 . 0 = R/C Buildings
(2)
where H is the height of the building in feet. These formulas have been compared with those
in the Uniform Building Code (Goel and Chopra, 1997a).

However, Equations (1) and (2) may not be appropriate for estimating seismic
displacements of buildings. To obtain a conservative estimate of building displacements, the
period should be overestimated and the best-fit + 1 curve is recommended:
H TU
80 . 0
045 . 0 = Steel Buildings
(3)
H TU
90 . 0
023 . 0 = R/C Buildings
(4)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Height H, ft
P
e
r
i
o
d

T
,

s
e
c
R/C MRF Buildings
T
R
= 0.018H
0.90
T
L
= 0.016H
0.90
T
U
= 0.023H
0.90
Buildings with
u
go
0.15g
..
u
go
< 0.15g
..

Figure 3. Results of regression analysis for R/C MRF buildings.
SHEAR WALL BUILDINGS
Figure 4 shows measured periods for 16 R/C Shear Wall (SW) buildings. Based on a
theoretical formula, derived using Dunkerleys method, and regression analysis of these data,
the best-fit, best-fit + 1, and best-fit - 1 curves were developed (Figure 4). The best-fit - 1
curve was recommended (Goel and Chopra, 1998) to estimate base shear conservatively:
A
H
T
e
L
0019 . 0 = SW Buildings
(5)
where
Ae
is the equivalent shear area, expressed as a percentage of the building plan area,
AB
, and given by:
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
.
|
\
|
=
=
D
H
A
H
H
A
A
i
i
i
N
w
i
i B
e
2
1
2
83 . 0 1
100

(6)
In Equation (6),
Ai
,
Hi
and
Di
are the area, height, and dimension in the direction under
consideration of the ith shear wall and
NW
is the number of shear walls.
However, to obtain a conservative estimate for building displacements, the best-fit + 1
curve is appropriate and the following formula is recommended:

A
H
T
e
U
0026 . 0 = SW Buildings
(7)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
H / A
1/2
e

P
e
r
i
o
d

T
,

s
e
c
Concrete SW Buildings
T
U
= 0.0026H / A
1/2
e

T
L
= 0.0019H / A
1/2
e

T
R
= 0.0023H / A
1/2
e

Buildings with
u
go
0.15g
..
u
go
< 0.15g
..

Figure 4. Results of regression analysis for R/C SW buildings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant
CMS-9416265. The authors are grateful for this support.
REFERENCES CITED
Goel, R. K. and Chopra, A. K., 1998, Period formulas for Concrete Shear Wall Buildings, Journal of
Structural Engineering, ASCE, 124(4), 426-433.
Goel, R. K. and Chopra, A. K., 1997a, Period Formulas for Moment Resisting Frame Buildings,
Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, 123(11), 1454-1461.
Goel, R. K. and Chopra, A. K., 1997b, Vibration Properties of Buildings Determined from Recorded
Earthquake Motions, Report No. UCB/EERC-97/14, Earthquake Engineering Research Center,
University of California, Berkeley, Dec.

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TECHNICAL NOTE

Building Period Formulas for Estimating Seismic

= . Also included are two other curves:

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