Performance‐based seismic engineering: the need for a reliable conceptual comprehensive approach

The main objectives of this paper are: (i) to review briefly as to what is understood by performance‐based engineering, performance‐based seismic engineering, and performance‐based seismic design (PBSD); (ii) to discuss the main requirements that a reliable PBSD should satisfy and why some approaches that have been proposed fail in satisfying those requirements; (iii) to focus on what is considered a promising probabilistic PBSD approach; and (iv) to present a conceptual comprehensive numerical procedure for the PBSD of buildings. It is shown that to satisfy the objectives of a reliable PBSD philosophy and procedure it is necessary to start with a multi‐level seismic design criteria, to consider a probabilistic design approach, to consider local structural and non‐structural damage and therefore design spectra for buildings ( n degrees of freedom), to take into account the cumulative damage, and to control not only displacements but also ductility (minimum strength) to limit damage. Finally, it is concluded that a transparent and conceptual comprehensive preliminary design approach is necessary. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.