Small-size buildings are not designed by professional structural engineers in Korea. Therefore, their seismic performance can not be exactly estimated because their member sizes and reinforcement may be over- or under-designed. A prescriptive design criteria for the small-size buildings exists, but it also provides over-designed structural members since structural analysis is not incorporated, so it is necessary to revise the prescriptive criteria. The goal of this study was to provide an information for the revision, which is seismic performance and capability of small-size reinforced concrete moment frame buildings. For the study, the state of existing small-size reinforce-concrete buildings such as member size and reinforcement was identified by investigating their structural drawings. Then, over-strength, ductility and response modification factor of the small-size reinforced concrete moment frame buildings were estimated by analytical approach along with seismic performance check. The result showed that they possess moderate over-strength and ductility, and may use slightly increased response modification factor.

For small-size reinforce-concrete buildings, Midas Gen, OpenSees, and Perform-3D, which are structural analysis programs that are most popularly used at present, were applied for nonlinear static pushover analysis, and then difference between those programs was analyzed. Example buildings were limited to 2-story frames with irregular shaped walls. Analysis result showed that there were more differences than for frames only and frames with rectangular walls, but it was not so significant. Nevertheless, the capacity curve were different in some buildings, which is attributed to shape and location of walls, and feature of the analysis program. Especially, selection of automatic or manual input in Midas Gen, or nonlinear wall elements in Perform3D can affect the capacity curve and performance of the buildings. Therefore, the program users should understand the feature of the program well, and then conduct performance assessment. The result of this study is limited to low-story buildings so that it should be noted that it is possible to get different results for mid- to high-rise buildings.

For small-size reinforce-concrete buildings, Midas Gen, OpenSees, and Perform-3D, which are structural analysis programs that are most popularly used at present, were applied for nonlinear static pushover analysis, and then difference between those programs was analyzed. Example buildings were limited to 2-story frames only and frames with one or more rectangular walls. Analysis results showed that there was not much difference for frames only based on capacity curves. There were some differences for frames with rectangular walls, but it was not so significant. The global behaviors represented by the capacity curve were not so different, but the feature of each analysis program appeared when the results were analyzed in more detail. Therefore, the program users should understand the feature of the program well, and then conduct performance assessment. The result of this study is limited to low-story frames only and frames with rectangular walls so that it should be noted that it is possible to get different results for frames with non-rectangular walls or mid- to high-rise buildings.

Since the execution of structural design by professional structural engineers is not mandatory for small-size buildings in Korea, structural design is conducted by architects or contractors resulting in concern about the seismic safety of the buildings. Therefore, the Korean Structural Engineers Association proposed dedicated structural design criteria in 2012. The criteria were developed based on a deterministic approach in which the structural members are designed only with information of story and span length of the buildings and without structural analyses. However, due to the short time devoted to their development, these criteria miss satisfactory basis and do not deal with structural walls popularly used in Korea. Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport launched a research on the 'development of structural performance enhancement technologies for small-size buildings against earthquakes and climate changes'.. As part of this research, this paper intends to establish direction for the preparation of deterministic structural design guidelines for seismic safety of domestic small-size reinforced concrete buildings. To that goal, a typical plan of these buildings is selected considering frames only and frames plus walls, and then design is conducted by changing the number of stories and span length. Next, the seismic performance is analyzed by nonlinear static pushover analysis. The results show that the structural design guidelines should be developed by classifying frames only and frames plus walls. The size and reinforcement of structural elements should be provided in the middle level of the current Korean Building Code and criteria for small buildings by considering story and span length for buildings with frames only, and determined by considering the shape and location of walls and the story and span length as well for buildings with frames plus walls. It is recommended that the design of walls should be conducted by reducing the amount of walls along with symmetrically located walls.