Severe seismic events in urban regions during the last two decades revealed that

the structures constructed before the development of modern seismic codes are the
most vulnerable to earthquakes. Sub-standard reinforced concrete buildings constitute
an important part of this highly vulnerable urban building stock. There is urgent need
for the development and improvement of methods for seismic performance
assessment of existing reinforced concrete structures.
As an alternative to current conventional force-based assessment methods, a
performance evaluation procedure for structural members, mainly reinforced concrete
columns is proposed in this study, by using an energy-based approach combined with
the low cycle fatigue concept. An energy-based hysteresis model is further introduced
for representing the inelastic response of column members under severe seismic
excitations. The shape of the hysteresis loops are controlled by the dissipated
cumulative energy whereas the ultimate strength is governed by the lowcycle fatigue
behavior. These two basic characteristics are obtained experimentally from full
scale specimens tested under constant and variable amplitude displacement
cycles.
The first phase of the experimental program presented in the study constitutes
of testing sub-standard non-conforming column specimens. The second phase of
testing was conducted on standard, code compliant reinforced concrete columns. A
total number of 13 specimens were tested. The behavior of these specimens was
observed individually and comparatively according to the performance based
objectives. The results obtained from the experiments were employed for
developing relations between the energy dissipation capacity of specimens, the
specimen properties as well as the imposed displacement history. Moreover, the
measured rotation capacities at the plastic regions are evaluated comparatively with
the limits proposed by modern displacement-based seismic design and assessment
provisions.