Developing innovative methods for performance driven design and health monitoring of structures

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Traditional building codes are said to be prescriptive as they specify the design solutions and construction requirements according to particular materials and methods, rather than to performance criteria. Consequently, the design process becomes highly regulated and complex. Performance Based Design (PBD) format has been evolving as an alternative to the current practice. PBD is expected to offer a more flexible framework for design to ensure adequate safety as well as desired performance, and foster innovation in design by allowing the application of any acceptable and verifiable solution to achieve a given level of performance. The National Building Code of Canada (2005) has made some progress in that direction. However, the full framework for PBD of buildings is not yet available. The proposed research focuses on the performance-based seismic design (PBSD) of buildings. PBSD generally defines the target performance in terms of displacement and damage under specified levels of seismic hazard. While much research has been carried out in the recent past on PBSD, a number of issues, such as, availability of a robust mechanism for achieving PBSD within the constraints of the current building codes, and reliable and simplified methods for PBSD and seismic performance evaluation of buildings, remained unresolved. The proposed research will address these issues by developing simplified and practical methods for performance-driven seismic design of regular and irregular buildings. Similar methods for multiple levels of seismic hazard such as, post-earthquake fire will also be developed. Apart from the design of new buildings, the methods developed herein can be potentially used for performance-based seismic upgrade of existing buildings. Performance monitoring of new and existing structures is another important aspect complementary to PBD. New methods for performance assessment using structural health monitoring techniques will be developed for that. There is a significant potential for innovation in the proposed research which aims at enhancing the fundamental knowledge on structural design and performance monitoring/assessment, and producing high performing, safer, and sustainable/durable civil infrastructure.