Safety vs. Economy in Performance-Based Design of Buildings: Inevitable Compromise or False Dilemma?

摘要

The objective of the present paper is to investigate the influence of the design objective on the total cost of buildings. A series of reinforced concrete buildings are designed for various design objectives, and the construction cost is calculated. Additionally, the earthquake losses for three different earthquake scenarios are estimated. The total cost of the buildings is calculated as the sum of the construction cost plus the earthquake losses. The whole investigation demonstrates that designing for elastic response against the design earthquake is both the safest and the most economical in long-term option in the case of strong seismic excitations.