Mathematical Tools for the Seismic Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures: A Selected Review

Response spectrum analysis represents the preferential strategy to analyze and design civil engineering structures subjected to seismic actions. Nevertheless, most structural codes were developed by following hand computation-oriented philosophies so that their prescriptions can be hard to be implemented in finite element frameworks and often prevent the use of innovative strategies. This contribution presents a review of innovative tools focused on reinforced concrete framed structures aiming to establish a possible organic workflow for design procedures. Some pivotal issues typical of such a structural typology are hereby addressed, and particularly, global torsion and capacity checks in the presence of axial force–biaxial bending responses. This has been done by correlating innovative solutions such as torsional spectra, seismic envelopes, and limit analysis and by presenting a numerical procedure capable of performing capacity checks of reinforced concrete cross sections. The presented strategy aims to be a computationally efficient and exhaustive procedure to be used within the framework of finite element analysis.