Seismic areas in Canada are classified into three categories for three different combinations of acceleration and velocity seismic zones (Za < Zv, Za = Zv, and Za > Zv), and ground motions in different zonal combination areas are expected to have different frequency characteristics. The National Building Code of Canada specifies different levels of seismic design base shear for short-period buildings located in areas with different zonal combinations. The specification of seismic design base shear for long-period buildings is directly tied to zonal velocity, irrespective of seismic zonal combination. This paper evaluates the seismic performance of both high-rise long-period and low rise short-period reinforced concrete ductile moment-resisting frame buildings located in seismic regions having Za < Zv, Za = Zv, and Za > Zv. Two frame buildings have 10 and 18 storeys were used as structural models for high-rise buildings, while a set of four-storey buildings were used to represent low-rise buildings. All buildings were designed to the current Canadian seismic provisions and concrete material code. Three groups of earthquake records were selected as representative ground motions in the three zonal combination regions. The inelastic responses of the designed buildings to the three groups of ground motions were analyzed statistically. The results indicate that the distribution of inelastic deformations is significantly different for high-rise frame buildings situated in seismic regions with Za < Zv, Za = Zv, and Za > Zv. Inelastic deformation is concentrated in the lower storeys for high-rise buildings located in Za < Zv areas, whereas significant inelastic deformation can develop in the upper storeys for high-rise buildings situated in Za > Zv regions. The use of three different levels of seismic design base shear for short-period structures improves the consistency of ductility demands on low-rise buildings situated in the three different zonal combination regions. Despite the use of appropriate design base shears for different seismic regions, the ductility demands for these low-rise buildings are relatively high. To avoid excessive ductility demands, it is suggested that the seismic strengths for low-rise short-period buildings should not be significantly reduced from their elastic design base shears. Key words: earthquake, ground motion, seismic, design, reinforced concrete, frame buildings, beams, columns, ductility.
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