الفهرس 
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Abstract
Normal buildings design is done by determining the gravity and lateral loads according lo building code provisions. The design of such buildings meets code requirements, bui there is no guarantee that they will respond appropriately to real earthquakes. While design is based on loads and forces, it is the deformations as well as inelastic energy dissipation, which are of concern when buildings respond to earthquakes.
The objective of the current study is to evaluate the seismic behavior of three reinforced concrete office buildings (three, six and nine stories), designed according to the Egyptian Code. The evaluation is performed by analyzing the buildings using nonlinear dynamic analysis, which is carried out using a combination of the Newmark-p step-by-step integration method, and the pseudo-force method. The solution is carried out in incremental form. Nine earthquake records are used in the analyses to cover a wide range of ground motion duration and frequency content.
The results of the dynamic analysis are evaluated in terms of the damage index, story drift, roof drift, and the base shear. Different performance levels are defined for the structure in terms of the damage levels. Damage state of the buildings is quantified using the damage index proposed by Park et al. (1985) and modified by Kunnath et al. (1992).
The numerical results show that: i) the performance of the three analyzed RC buildings under the effect of future earthquakes that may occur in Egypt would be satisfactory ii) For a return period 50 years the three story building will suffer from minor damage, while the six and the nine-story buildings will be in the elastic state, iii) The failure mechanism of the analyzed buildings is dependent on the height of the building. For the 3-story building the damage mechanism was characterized by the developing of plastic hinges in the first story columns resulting in soft story mechanism. In the 6-story and 9-story buildings the damage states were characterized by the developing of plastic hinges in the building beams which can be characterized as a ductile mode of failure, iv) For the three analyzed building and at the same PGA the records having low A/V ratio induce the higher response.