This new 2-story, 40,000ft2 police headquarters becomes the first building in the United States to apply 2000 NEHRP procedure to design an essential facility with Fluid Viscous Dampers (FVDs). The structure is located in Vacaville, California, which is in a region of high seismic activity and classified as zone 4 per 1997 Uniform Building Code. The lateral force resisting system (LFRS) consists of special steel moment frames with FVDs. In accordance with 2000 NEHRP, the LFRS is sized and designed with strength requirements of the code level force. FVDs are provided to control displacement of the structure. This design philosophy leads to a low frequency structure with low acceleration. FVDs reduce the displacement level to less than 0.01 story drift ratio. Earthquake performance and cost effectiveness are the primary concerns in designing this building. Site specific response spectra and time histories are synthesized for a 500-year and a 2,500-year return event. Performance-based Design using both linear and nonlinear time history analyses is conducted to ensure “immediate occupancy” performance. A cost study shows that much of the FVD’s cost is offset by reducing the weight of the LFRS while providing a far superior performance than the “code-compliant” structures.
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