Advantages and limitations of adaptive and nonadaptive force-based pushover procedures

The recent drive for use of performance-based methodologies in design and assessment
of structures in seismic areas has significantly increased the demand for the development
of reliable nonlinear inelastic static pushover analysis tools. As a result, the recent years
have witnessed the introduction of the so-called adaptive pushover methods, which,
unlike their conventional pushover counterparts, feature the ability to account for the
effect that higher modes of vibration and progressive stiffness degradation might have
on the distribution of seismic storey forces. In this paper, the accuracy of these forcebased
adaptive pushover methods in predicting the horizontal capacity of reinforced
concrete buildings is explored, through comparison with results from a large number
of nonlinear time-history dynamic analyses. It is concluded that, despite its apparent
conceptual superiority, current force-based adaptive pushover features a relatively minor
advantage over its traditional non-adaptive equivalent, particularly in what concerns the
estimation of deformation patterns of buildings, which are poorly predicted by both types
of analysis.