Reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings are a widely used structural system around the world. These buildings are customarily designed through standard code-based procedures, which are well-suited to the workflow of design offices. However, these procedures typically do not aim for or achieve seismic performance higher than code minimum objectives. This article proposes a practical design method that improves the seismic performance of bare RC frame buildings, using only information available from elastic structural analysis conducted in standard code-based design. Four buildings were designed using the proposed method and the prescriptive approach of design codes, and their seismic performance is evaluated using three-dimensional nonlinear (fiber) models. The findings show that the seismic performance is improved with the proposed method, with reductions in the collapse fragility, higher deformation capacity, and greater overstrength. Furthermore, an economic analysis for a six-story building shows that these improvements come with only a 2% increase in the material bill, suggesting that the proposed method is compatible with current project budgets as well as design workflow. The authors also provide mathematical justification of the method.

钢筋混凝土（RC）框架建筑物是世界范围内广泛使用的结构系统。这些建筑物通常通过基于标准代码的程序进行设计，这些程序非常适合设计办公室的工作流程。但是，这些程序通常不会针对或达到高于规范最低目标的抗震性能。本文提出了一种实用的设计方法，该方法仅使用可在基于标准代码的设计中进行的弹性结构分析获得的信息来提高裸露的RC框架建筑物的抗震性能。使用提议的方法和设计规范的规定方法设计了四座建筑物，并使用三维非线性（纤维）模型评估了它们的抗震性能。结果表明，所提方法提高了抗震性能，降低了塌陷脆性，更高的变形能力和更大的超强度。此外，对一栋六层楼高的建筑进行的经济分析表明，这些改进仅使材料费用增加了2％，这表明所提出的方法与当前的项目预算以及设计工作流程兼容。作者还提供了该方法的数学依据。