Yield Point Spectra for Seismic Design and Rehabilitation

A new spectral representation of seismic demand is described for use in the seismic design of new structures and in the evaluation and rehabilitation of existing structures. Yield Point Spectra (YPS) retain the intuitive appeal of the Capacity Spectrum Method (Freeman 1978) and join the Nonlinear Static Procedures of FEMA 273/274 (1997) and ATC 40 (1996) for use in estimating displacement demands. YPS also may be used to establish admissible combinations of strength and stiffness for the design of new structures to limit system ductility and drift to arbitrary values. Graphical procedures allow admissible design regions to be established to satisfy multiple performance objectives. YPS computed for 15 ground motions classified as Short Duration, Long Duration, or as containing near-fault Forward Directivity pulses are presented for bilinear and stiffness-degrading hysteretic models.