Capacity Design Principles for R/C Frame-System

Structures
1. GENERAL
Codes of Practice :
STAS 10107/0-90 (1990) Design of Concrete Structures. Romanian
Standard.
P100-92 (1992) Seismic Design of Buildings. Romanian Standard.
NP 007/97 (1997) Design of RC Structural Frame Structures.
Romanian Standard.
P85/96 (1996) Design of RC Structural Walls Structures. Romanian
Standard.
STAS 10101/0-92, ...etc Design for the Actions on the Structures
(wind, snow, occupancy loads, safety coefficients, combining of the
actions, self-weight of the materials, etc).
The structures are expected to undergo several cycles of deformation
excursions into the post-elastic range when subjected to earthquakes. The
designer must ensure that the inelastic deformations that will occur at
certain critical regions along the member of the structure, due by the
lateral displacements will not lead to the crack of the members in these
regions. This means that we must ensure, for the critical regions a ductility
amount much larger than the ductility requirements for the lateral
displacements. This is that along the whole members of the structure the
designer must perform both the following checking :
Scap Smax
and cap max
Generally it is considered that a plastic hinge that occurs at the end
of the beam is less dangerous than the plastic hinge occurrence in the
column. We will oblige, for a given joint of the structure, plastic hinges
occurrence in the beams instead of columns by ensuring that the design
bending moment values in columns will be greater than the bending
moment capacity in the adjacent beams.
By the other hand, shear-force failures are brittle (non-ductile) and
sudden. To avoid this kind of failure in the critical regions of the members
of the structures special design measures and checking procedures must
be taken into account.
Seismic design accordingly to method A simplified method (P100,
table 6.2) ensures a good dissipation of the energy during the excursions
in the post-elastic range by checking, proportioning and a good detailing
of the critical regions of the members of the structure.
2. SEISMIC HYPOTHESIS

(I) along x axis - Sx

(II) along y axis - Sy

(III) skew seismic attack - 0.707 Sx + 0.707 Sy

Notes:
1. Sx and Sy = S base shear force (P100 cap.5.3.
(5.1)and (5.2));
2. x and y are the principal axes of the building
3. Both senses ( ex. +Sx and -Sx ) must be taken into account.

3. FLOW of the COMPUTATIONS

A. MEMBERS PROPORTIONING
(pre-design)
B. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
C. DRIFT CONTROL CHECKING

(if necessary)

D. BEAMS FLEXURAL REINFORCEMENT

E. BEAMS SHEAR REINFORCEMENT
F. COLUMNS FLEXURAL REINFORCEMENT
G. COLUMNS SHEAR REINFORCEMENT
H. BEAM-COLUMN JOINTS
I. VERIFICATION OF THE DIAPHRAGMS
J. FOUNDATIONS
Note : because of the capacity design procedure, no changing in the
shown computation-flowchart can be made (for example shear
dimensioning of the stirrups in the beam cannot be performed before
performing flexural dimensioning and effective detailing of the bars of the
beam; Flexural design for columns can be made only after the effective
flexural reinforcing bars choosing of the four beams (2 at the top and 2
situated to the bottom) edging in this column - for a planar frame there
are four beams, but for a 3D-one there are 8 beams !).
A. MEMBERS PROPORTIONING (pre-design)
The R/C structures are heavy buildings. The ratio live load/dead load is
poor. The self-weight of the building is one the major part of the total load
acting on the members of this type of structures.
By the other hand, for the multi-storey flexible structures located in
seismic areas, the interstory drift control governs the design.
This is why, in the very beginning of the computations, a correct
estimation of the cross-sectional dimensions of the members is difficult to
be carried out. Usually, we choice the dimensions accordingly some
simplified rules (shown below), estimate the self-weight of the structure,
perform the structural analysis, check the drift limitations and than, if
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necessary re-design the cross-sectional dimensions of the members. If this

is leading to a changing of the self-weight of the member in a range larger
than 10% to15% than the pre-estimated one, we must re-compute the
self-weight and perform again the structural analysis...

beams pre-design
h = L / 10..L / 12
b = h / 3...2h / 3
where : h the total height of the beam
b the width of the beam
L the opening of the beam.
Notes : 1. b and h are rounded to a multiple of 5 cm. (if the total
height of the beam is resulting larger than 80 cm., we round hvalue to a multiple of 10 cm.)
2. b must be large enough in rapport to the columns
dimension in order to ensure a good confining of the concrete
core in the intersection joint. The minimum allowed value for b
is 20 cm.
3. As a common practice,
the longitudinal and/or the
transverse beams are usually having the same cross sectional
dimensions for a given story or for the whole building.

columns pre-design
Ab N / (n Rc)
where : Ab - cross-sectional area of the column (b * h)
N - axial force in the column (accordingly to the tributary area)
n coefficient accordingly to the columns position in the
building
(n=0.35 for inside located columns, n=0.30 for the columns
along the perimeter of the buildings plan, and n=0.25 for the
corners columns).
Rc the design compressive strength of the concrete.
Notes : 1. b and h are rounded to a multiple of 5 cm.
2. The minimum allowed dimension is 30 * 30 cm.
3. A special attention must be carried for the short-type
columns ( the ratio - length over the cross sectional maximum
dimension - ( H/h) is less than 5) Usually this type of columns
must be avoided for seismic resistant structures.

slabs pre-design
The slabs must be enough thick in order to behave in the elastic
range, even when subjected to the seismic action. Usually the slab
thickness is taken at least 13 cm (because of the noise transfer control) for
all the stories and at least 10 cm for the roof floor.
Verification of the diaphragms is made accordingly to point I, as
shown below in this paper.

foundations

Accordingly to the capacity design principles, the foundations must

resist in the elastic range up to the collapse of the building. The type and
the dimensions of the foundations must be carefully proportioned in order
to respect this principle.
For multistory buildings, (more than 5-6 stories) the codes of
practice recommend to provide a rigid-box type infrastructure having
R/C walls perimetral and inside, along the major axes of the plan of the
building.

C. DRIFT CONTROL CHECKING

Accordingly to P100 it is allowed to consider only the X-axis
displacement (simplified formula) instead of the more accurate computing
of the drift (taking into account the vertical displacements too) as in
NP007.

Simplified approach
Full approach
r = / (for see table 5.4. in r = (xi left - xi-1 left He / L(yi
P100)
left - yi right )) / (the same for
)
With : r , He and , etc. are shown in the figures.
The limit values are :

r / He 0.0035 if the partitioning and the

perimetral
walls
could
affect
the
free
displacements
of
the
frames
during
the
earthquakes. This walls are made by brittle
materials (masonry, lightweight concrete, etc)
r / He 0.0070 if the partitioning and the
perimetral walls are not affecting the free
displacements
of
the
frames
during
the
earthquakes. This walls are made by ductile-type
materials.
r / He 0.0100 for mono-story (ground story)
buildings with walls made by ductile-type

materials.

D. BEAMS FLEXURAL REINFORCEMENT

Flexural reinforcement of the beams is made accordingly to the
values in the bending moment envelopes for the both senses of the
seismic action.
It is allowed a reduction of the design bending moment to the value
in the columns margins if this reduction is less than 15% of the value in
the joint of the model.

The necessary reinforcing steel amount for the bottom-sided bars is

computed for the largest bending moment value along the whole opening
of the beam. A maximum width of the flange of b p = 3hp + b + 3hp (if
exists) will be considered.
The necessary reinforcing steel amount for the top-sided bars will
be computed separately for the left / right side of the beam. The
computation is made by taking into account the apport of the previous
computed Abottom as a compressed reinforcing steel layer. For the continuos
beams, the computations are made for the maximum value of the left-side
right-side bending moments value (the upper bars are running through the
column to the next span without cut-off).

For the continuos beams, a redistribution of the bending moment

values in a range of maximum 30% is allowed.

In order to assure a good ductile behavior of the beams during the

earthquakes, the relative depth of the concrete zone across the beams
sections must be kept below the maximum admissible value 0.25
where = x / ho (see the figure below)

chart)

chart)

More, the minimum reinforcing steel percentages are :

For the top bars p% 0.45% in seismic zones A-E (P100
p% 0.30% in zones F
For the bottom bars p% 0.15% in seismic zones A-E (P100
p% 0.10% in zones F

Much more, the minimum allowed ratio between the bottom over the
top reinforcing steel amounts must be at least As bottom / As top 0.30.
Finally,
high-ductility,
ribbed-type
reinforcing
recommended. The minimum allowed diameter is 10 mm.

bars

are

E. BEAMS SHEAR REINFORCEMENT

The computations are running separately for each sense (left-toright and right-to-left) of the seismic action.
Computations for the design shear force values are carried-out in
order to avoid shear-force premature (brittle-type) failure.
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Bending moment envelope is obtained by superimposing vertical

loads effects to the moment diagrams due to seismic action (see the
figure). The design shear force for beams is associated of the plastic
hinges occurrence at both ends of the beam.

For each sense of the seismic action there are two possible
situations:

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The design shear force values shall be computed accordingly:

Vmax

sup
M cap

inf

M cap
l1

( g 1.2 p)
l1
2

where:

Notes :

Vmax = design shear force value computed

separately for each sense (left-to-right and rightto-left) of the seismic action.
l1 = the distance between the two potential plastic
hinges.
g = sum of gravity-type dead loads
p = sum of gravity-type live loads (loads
coefficients
accordingly
for
the
seismic
combinations)
Mcap = bending moment capacities of the beam in
the shown sections (positive or negative
accordingly), summated in absolute values
(modulus).
1. Mcap are computed in accordance to the effective reinforcing
area of the provided flexural bars in the beam.
2. For positive moment values, Mcap is computed assuming a
maximum width of the flange of the beam equal to bp = 3hp +
b + 3hp (if exists), as shown before.
3. Mcap computation is made assuming an increased value of
the steel strength (the mean value of the steel strength) equal
to Rs*=1.25 Rs, where Rs is the tensile (equal to the
compressive) design steel strength.

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More, in order to avoid brittle failures, we control the maximum

relative shear stress as it follows:
v

V max
2 where b,h are the cross dimension of the beam
bhRt

and Rt is the design tensile strength of the concrete.

By the other hand, because of the cyclic (reversal) deflections,
concrete capacity of bearing shear forces (in order to compute stirrups
amount necessary) is reduced, so we shall diminish the concrete tensile
strength by multiplication to a coefficient mt less than 1.0, computed as
follows:
Rt * mt Rt where mt

3 v
10
. (v relative shear stress, shown before)
2

Minimum stirrups diameter is the largest value of:

-1/4 Alongitudinal
- 6mm for h80 cm.
- 8mm for h>80 cm.
In the potential plastic zones, the spacing of the stirrups is the
smallest value from:
- 10 Alongitudinal
- 20 cm.
- h / 4 ( h the total height of the beam).
In the rest of the beam the spacing of the stirrups is the smallest
value from:
- 30 cm.
- 3h / 4
The minimum shear reinforcement percentage must be :
- pe% 0.2% in the potential plastic zones
- pe% 0.1% for the rest of the beam
n Astirr
100 and
where : pe%
n number of the legs of the stirrup
b a stirr
b width of the beam
Astirr cross sectional area of a stirrups
leg
astirr spacing between the stirrups.
Along the whole length of the upper reinforcing bars, the closest
spacing between the stirrups shall be provided.
There are some situations when the negative bending moment is
running along the entire span of the beam (alternating of long to
short spans the base pattern for the hospitals, schools, etc) as
shown below.

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Special rules of lapping of the top reinforcement are provided. The

stirrups spacing is diminished to the smallest value along the entire
span.
Specials care and different rules must be provided in the situation of
large point-loads acting along the span of the beams (usually for
industrial-purposes buildings). The bending moment diagrams and
plastic hinge occurrence is different from the previous shown ones.
Some detailing rules referring to the minimum/maximum distances
between the bars, anchorage length, hooks length and shape,
imposing of the plastic hinge position...etc are provided in the codes
of practice too.
An example referring to the flexural / shear reinforcement pattern for
a common beam is shown below:

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3.200
30.0
+8.79
+5.96
+3.13

15.0

15.0

3.700

2.900

15.0

30.0
15.0

15.0

2.900

(2) 2#14 L= 1.81

1.27

15.0

Etr#8/20
Etr#8/10
Etr#8/10
1.30 15.0
15.0 1.30 80.0

15.0

30.0

3.400

(3) 2#12 L= 3.83

3.65

(1) 2#12 L= 2.27

1.82

1.70

30.0

(9) 2#12 L= 2.52

2.07

(4) 2#14 L= 2.80

2.60
1.15

(6) 2#12 L= 3.99

3.32

30.0
15.0

Etr#8/20
Etr#8/10
Etr#8/10
15.0 1.00 90.0
1.00 15.0
30.0

3.400

(10) 2#14 L= 2.11

1.57

(12) 2#12 L= 4.49

3.82

(5) 2#14 L= 4.02

3.32

(11) 2#14 L= 4.52

3.82

3
Sectiunea 2-2. Scara 1:25

Sectiunea 1-1. Scara 1:25

1 2 2 1

25

25
5 6 6 5

5 6 6 5

30.0

25
(7)Etr#8/10 L=1.36

30.0

25
(7)Etr#8/20 L=1.36

Some of the rules of lapping of the top reinforcement, for the

situation of a negative bending moment diagram along the entire
span are shown in the next drawing

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15

F. COLUMNS FLEXURAL REINFORCEMENT

Unfortunately, in columns, the plastic hinges will occure at the ends
of the element, this means the zone of the lapped splices for longitudinal
reinforcement and the zone of casting interrupts.
Large axial forces are reducing the ductility capacity for the
columns.
Because of this aspect, n-values larger than 0.3..0.4 must be
avoided.
n

N
0.3 0.4
b h Rc

where - N axial force.

- b, h, - cross sectional dimensions of the

column.
- Rc design compressive strength of
concrete.
More, in order to ensure a quite good ductility behavior we limit the
relative value of the compressed zone of the concrete to the value:
0.4
(for see page 6, flexure reinforcement for
beams)

Axial force considerations

The magnitude of the axial force varies, depending of the directions (x,
y, and skew at 45) and the sense (+ or -) of the seismic motion (for a
brief explanation see below).

The N values shall be computed accordingly to the effective shear

capacity of the adjacent beams, shear capacity computed accordingly to
point (E) before.

Bending moment considerations

Because of the torsional effects of the building, bi-axial bending

moments should be taken into account. Considering the column as a
vertical console, for the tree seismic hypothesis, on the top of the column
will act the following forces (considering only the + sign for translations
and general torsion) :

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For a constant axial force value, the Mx My relationship for the

three seismic hypotheses is leading to (only positive sign values are
considered in the below sketch):

The plastic hinge occurrence in the column is more dangerous than a

plastic hinge that occurs at the end of the beam. We shall magnify the
design bending moment values in columns in order to be greater than the
bending moment capacity of the adjacent beams accordingly:

Mdesign K M
where :

beams
column
M cap
M seismic
columns
M

seismic
beams
M seismic

KM safety coefficient - = 1.4 for seismic zones A, B, C

= 1.2 for seismic zones D, E
= 1.0 for the roof-story of the structure
Mseismic , Mcapacity for beams means Mleft + Mright and they
are explained in the sketch below
reduction factor - see table 5.4. in P100

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Mseismic for columns must be considered separately for each

sense of the seismic motion and separately for the top and for the bottom
edges of the column. Finally, for a planar frame, for a given story the
following situations will appear :

Finally, the largest value from M1, M2, M3, and M4 plus the
correspondent axial force N are the design values. In this sketch, only M1
and M2 (seismic action left-to-right) were explicitly computed.
Note : for seismic zone F (low seismicity) it is allowed to design the
reinforcement amount taking into account only the seismic bending
moment value if , the importance factor (table 5.1. in P100) is 1.0.

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Design for the flexural reinforcement in the columns must by one

hand to ensure enough longitudinal reinforcement to resist to the actions
and by the other hand to ensure that the reinforcement amount is not
excessive (because of the ductility demands), this is :
p% minimum p% effective p% maximum
p%max recommended is 2.5 %
p%min is accordingly the following table :
Column
s class
Steel
grade
Interior
Perimetr
.
Corner

Class A

Class B

PC60

PC52

OB37

OB37

0.8%
0.9%

PC60
PC52
0.5%
0.6%

0.5%
0.6%

0.6%
0.7%

0.7%

0.8%

1.0%

0.7%

Class C
OB37

0.6%
0.7%

PC60
PC52
0.4%
0.4%

0.8%

0.4%

0.5%

0.5%
0.5%

p%min per side of the column is 0.2%

The columns classes are :
Class A columns for aseismic designed buildings (zones A...E) with
possible plastic hinge occurrence (large post-elastic excursions).
Class B - columns for aseismic designed buildings (zones A...E),
designed to remain elastic for the seismic motion.
Class C - columns for aseismic designed buildings (zone F) or
columns not destined to resist to earthquakes.
G. COLUMNS SHEAR REINFORCEMENT

Vdesign K V

where:
situations)

beams
M cap
beams
M seismic

columns
seismic

column ,top
column ,bottom
column
M design
M design
Vseismic
but
and

He

-KV is the safety coefficient for shear (1.2 for all the
- reduction factor (table 5.4 in P100)
- He the clear height of the column.
- Mtop, Mbottom bending moment capacities for the
considered sections (corresponding to the effective
reinforcement of the column)
-Mcap and Mseismic in beams similar as for point F.

In order to avoid brittle failures, we control the maximum relative

shear stress as it follows:

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V max
2 where b,h are the cross dimension of the column
bhRt

and Rt is the design tensile strength of the concrete.

Multiple hoop patterns must be considered.
In the potential plastic zones, the spacing of the hoops is the smallest
value from:
- 6 Alongitudinal
- h / 5 ( h the height of the column).
but not less than 10 cm.
In the rest of the column the spacing of the hoops is the smallest value
from:
- 20 cm.
- 15 Alongitudinal
The length of the potential plastic zones is the largest value from:
- Hc / 6 (Hc the clear height of the column)
- 60 cm
- h (h is the largest cross sectional dimension of the column)
The plastic zones are considered the bottom part of the column for
all the stories. The top part of the columns is considered plastic zone only
if is considered that plastic hinges can occur in this part of the column.
The minimum diameter of the hoops is Alongitudinal /4 but not less than
6 mm, except the perimetral one that must have at least 8 mm in
diameter.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS
1. This paper contains some explanations referring the provisions included
in the annex D of P100.
2. Because of :

interstory drift limitation considerations,

flexure & shear design for the R/C beams,
flexure & shear design for the R/C columns,
design for the joints,
in the actual form, the program ARCHE (&EFFEL) cannot be used for
the design of R/C buildings in Romania.

3. The correct appliance of the Capacity Design provisions (obligatory in

Romania since 1992) is a complicated task. The procedures are interactive and are very difficult (or impossible) to be handled by handcomputation (this is why BETASOFT was selling hundreds of
implementations of the computer programs for R/C beams and columns
design, detailing and drawing).
4. A small amount of over-reinforcing of the necessary flexural steel
quantity in beams will lead, as explained before, to an increasing of the
necessary reinforcing amount for the stirrups in beams, for the flexural
and shear reinforcement in columns, and finally of the size and
reinforcement of the foundations - this means to a considerable
increasing of the total cost of the structure.
5. If the Capacity Design procedures are implemented in Arche and
Effels concrete expertise these could become the first full-interactive
CAD programs for buildings design in Romania.
6. Once the Romanians version of Capacity Design procedures are
implemented in the programs, only some minor changing are to be
made in order to transform ARCHE into a Eurocode 8 principles and
provisions program (the philosophy and the main procedures are the
same, only some changing referring to the detailing rules and checking
are necessary). An EC8 program can became today one of the most
interesting programs (in structural engineering) in Europe.
7. Explanations referring to joints, diaphragms and foundations in the
next paper.
8. This paper is not a public work, but a confidential one. The paper was
prepared especially for GRAITEC in order to help the adaptation of
Arche & Effel to the Romanian Codes of Practice. The paper contains
some tricks not published before. Some portions of this paper will be
published this year in France
(???contact professor Pascu !) and in
Romania.

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