Multi-Hazard Resistant Design of Buildings: A Spectrum-Based Approach for Seismic and Wind Loads

The building industry suffered serious setbacks in recent natural hazards. These events bring to focus the questions of how the structural engineering profession treats the large uncertainty in the natural hazards and structural capacity and what reliability existing buildings have against future hazards. Although the profession has well recognized the uncertainty of seismic and wind loads, the incorporation of uncertainty in most building code procedures has been limited to the selection of design loads based on return period. Normally, when structures are designed against hazards, it is usual to assume that only one such hazard will act on the structure at a time, and the design is routine. Such designs for different hazards are more often complementary. In the case of buildings situated in a seismic area and located close to a sea coast are liable to be hit by an earthquake and cyclone, though at different times. Nevertheless, the structure is to be designed to resist both these hazardous conditions. In the present study, a mitigation strategy is designed for a 6-storey building that can resist both wind and earthquake by using the response spectrum and velocity spectrum. For this, a multi-hazard spectrum is prepared by bringing the earthquake load and wind load spectrums into a common platform. Modeling and analysis of the building are done by using SAP-2000 software and it is designed for an optimum period for multi-hazards.