Author(s)

J. A. Avila

Abstract

The principal responses of the inelastic seismic performance of a 17-story reinforced concrete building located in the soft-soil of Mexico City, with normalstrength concrete (f´c= 250 kg/cm2) and with high-strength concrete (f´c= 700 kg/cm2), are analyzed. The designs are made according to the 2004 Mexico City Building Code, RDF-04. The design results are compared, after making spectral modal dynamic analysis, as well as the non-linear responses from the step-bystep dynamic analysis with the SCT-EW record of the 1985 earthquakes. Use of high-strength concretes (f´c > 400 kg/cm2) in reinforced concrete columns improves a great deal its axial load strength, and, therefore, in front of actions where compression high loads predominate, its performance is very adequate. In every analyzed case, reviewing the shear forces, the corresponding strength is never reached; that is, there is always a reserve strength, which is larger in highstrength concrete buildings; for this case a bigger quantity of transverse reinforcement by confinement was required because the design conditions for transverse reinforcement must be more demanding as the f´c value increases. 1 Introduction In this paper the principal results are resumed that show the most important aspects of the inelastic seismic performance of a 17-story RC building; it is designed with normal-strength concrete and high-strength concrete, according to the Concrete Norms of the 2004 Mexico City Building Code, RDF-04 [1]. The

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