Resumen

HERNANDEZ, Julio J  y  LOPEZ, Oscar A. Reliability OF THE STATIC TORSION METHOD OF THE VENEZUELAN EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT CODE. IMME [online]. 2003, vol.41, n.2-3, pp.01-27. ISSN 0376-723X.

This work concerns with the Method of the Equivalent Static Torsion, prescribed in the 2001 emission of the Venezuelan Code COVENIN 1756 "Earthquake Resistant Constructions", which contain several updates with respect to the preceding emission and that is applied to regular buildings. The conceptual basis of the seismic torsional problem are presented, and the objectives of the Method and the criteria that led to its parameters are discussed. In order to assess the reliability of the Method the responses determined using it are evaluated, for the cases of elastic responses to moderate earthquakes and inelastic responses to severe earthquakes. For the evaluation to moderate earthquakes, the code results are compared with the envelopes of the critical responses to two horizontal seismic components, considering their most unfavorable angle of incidence, and to the rotational seismic component. The envelopes incorporate the probable mean variations of the plan eccentricities, derived from statistical results. Evaluations of the Mexico-DF and the UBC/IBC USA codes are also presented and compared with the Venezuelan code. For the evaluation to severe earthquakes, we calculated the resistant shear-storey forces and their position in the deck, derived from the application of the Method, comparing them with the values established in international recommendations aimed to obtain a good performance in the inelastic range.

Palabras clave : static torsion; accidental eccentricity; seismic code; accidental response; rotational component.