This presentation describes changes to the seismic design criteria of Chapter 11 of ASCE 7-16 and specifically the new requirements for site-specific ground motions. New site-specific design requirements were developed to address an identified short-coming with ELF and MRSA seismic design procedures related to the use of only two response periods, T = 0.2 s and T = 1.0 s, to define seismic design forces in the domains of constant acceleration and constant velocity, respectively. Although approximate, the domains of constant acceleration and velocity provide a reasonably accurate and conservative representation of the frequency content of design ground motions when peak response spectral acceleration occurs at or near T = 0.2 s and peak response spectral velocity (i.e., peak response spectral acceleration divided by response period) occurs at or near T = 1.0 s.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing this course, you will be able to:

• Learn the seismic design criteria and seismic ground motion values;
• Learn the concept of site classes and the effect of site classes on the seismic design;
• Learn the site-specific ground motion procedures; and
• Learn the new changes to the seismic design criteria of Chapter 11 of ASCE 7-16 and specifically the new requirements for site-specific ground motions.