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THE BENEFITS OF PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Is your building safe from earthquakes or any disaster? The pensive question compels our structural engineers to introduce the concept of performance-based design or PBD into structural engineering to ensure safety and regulate vulnerability. This is because a building collapsed due to sudden structural failure (partially or completely) of that building that threatened human life and health.

Data shows that 1576 accidents happened due to the collapse of a structure in 2021. On average, globally eight buildings collapse in disasters every year resulting in 343 deaths every year. Therefore, it is highly important to use the required practices and the latest software such as Structural Engineering software in India to ensure safety and avoid any misshaping, leading to death.

What is Performance-Based Design (PBD)?

A performance-based design is an effective approach to analyse a structure for predictable performance requirements such as energy efficiency or seismic load. It is the process that defines performance criteria, design scenarios, non-linear analysis, performance evaluation and repetition of the design until the criteria are met. Moreover, the foremost thing to consider in PBD is to identify the purpose of the design needs.

While evaluating the bigger picture of structural designing, you need to address certain queries:

• Purpose of structural design.
• Steps to achieve the design purpose.
• How to confirm that the design purpose is achieved?
• Measures to be taken if the purpose is not met.
• Consider the consequences if the purpose is not achieved.
• Purpose of structural design.

If you are also pondering over these considerations, you need to divert your attention to PBD. By analysing the building's performance under certain conditions such as earthquakes, fire, strong cyclones, or blasts, you can prepare an effective design to address these weaknesses.

In order to define performance criteria, you can connect with stakeholders and review the relevant codes and standards. Make sure to use existing guidelines and frameworks. Furthermore, you can use advanced software such as CSI engineering Software to prepare the performance-based design of a building.

It will help you to get data to answer the following questions:

• Prepare the performance objectives for particular inputs.
• Proceed with the prepared design at the initial stage.
• Check if the desired outcomes are met.

Traditional Approach Vs. Performance-Based Approach: What’s Prime Difference?

Traditionally, the design is evaluated based on a two-level approach for the service operational and ultimate-strength limits states for the building. Whereas PBD allows engineers to check the performance of buildings on multiple levels such as occupancy and life safety.

In performance-based design, the deformation of the members and the building are quantified as a whole under the lateral forces of an earthquake or a certain level of seismic hazard. There is no measure of the deformation capability of members or buildings in a traditional approach.

Under performance-based analysis, engineers have more choices for performance evaluation as compared to limited states of collapse and serviceability based on traditional methods. Furthermore, elastic behaviour is used in traditional-based designing and inelastic behaviour is used in PBD.

Wrapping Up

In a nutshell, the process of PBD is to examine whether a building will perform under various conditions that are associated with potential hazard events. Performance-based approaches allow civil engineers to get desired performance with great confidence and expectations of reliability. Moreover, the latest software such as SAP2000 helps you to proceed with the process of performance-based analysis of a building. Through PBD, the scope of innovation and creativity gets enhanced and controls possible disasters.