An improved modal pushover analysis procedure for estimating seismic demands of structures

The pushover analysis (POA) procedure is difficult to apply to high-rise buildings, as it cannot account for the contributions of higher modes. To overcome this limitation, a modal pushover analysis (MPA) procedure was proposed by Chopra et al. (2001). However, invariable lateral force distributions are still adopted in the MPA. In this paper, an improved MPA procedure is presented to estimate the seismic demands of structures, considering the redistribution of inertia forces after the structure yields. This improved procedure is verified with numerical examples of 5-, 9- and 22-story buildings. It is concluded that the improved MPA procedure is more accurate than either the POA procedure or MPA procedure. In addition, the proposed procedure avoids a large computational effort by adopting a two-phase lateral force distribution..