Study on strength reduction factors considering the effect of classification of design earthquake

The strength reduction factors are not only the key factors in determining seismic action for force-based seismic design, but also the key parameters to derive the inelastic response spectra for performance-based seismic design. In this paper, with a high quality ground motion database that includes a reasonable-sized set of records from China, a statistical study on the strength reduction factors is conducted and a new expression of strength reduction factors involving classification of design earthquake, which is an important concept to determine design spectra in Chinese seismic design code, is proposed. The expression of strength reduction factors can reflect the ground motion characteristics of China to a certain extent and is particularly suitable for Chinese seismic design. Then, the influence effects of site condition, classification of design earthquake, period of vibration, ductility level, earthquake magnitude and distance to fault on strength reduction factors are investigated. It is concluded that the effect of site condition on the strength reduction factors cannot be neglected, especially for the short-period structures of higher ductility. The classification of design earthquake also has an important effect on strength reduction factors and it may be unsuitable to use the existing expressions of strength reduction factors to the design spectra of current Chinese seismic code. The earthquake magnitude has no practical effect on strength reduction factors and if the near-fault records with forward directivity effect are not taken into consideration, the effect of distance to fault on strength reduction factors can also be neglected.