Earthquake resistance of buildings with a ‘soft’ first storey

Abstract The dynamic, bi‐linear response behaviour of a series of eight storey shear buildings subjected to simulated earthquake excitation is studied. The specific objective of the investigation is to determine under what conditions a yielding first storey can adequately protect the upper storeys from significant yielding. Two classes of buildings are considered: stiff (0.5 sec period) and flexible (2.0 sec period), and the basic parameters considered in the yielding first storey are the yield force level and the bi‐linear stiffness. The results demonstrate that a very low yield force level and an essentially perfectly plastic yielding mechanism are required in the first storey to provide effective protection to the superstructure. Moreover, the required displacement capacity of such an effective first storey mechanism is found to be very large.