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Fixed offshore platforms in seismic active areas may be subjected to strong ground motions, causing the platform to undergo deformation well into the inelastic range. In this paper, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) of jacket type offshore platforms subjected to earthquake was performed in order to study the linear and nonlinear dynamic behavior of this type of structures. IDA is a parametric analysis method that has been recently presented to estimate structural performance under seismic loads. By using incremental dynamic analysis of jacket type offshore platforms, the assessment of demand and capacity can be carried out. The method was used to predict nonlinear behavior of three newly designed jacket type offshore platforms subjected to strong ground motions. The engineering demand parameters of the platforms in terms of story drifts and intermediate elevation maximum displacement for different records were compared. This method was used for the performance calculations (immediate occupancy, collapse prevention, and global dynamic instability) needed for performance-based earthquake engineering of the above mentioned platforms. Two different behaviors were observed for the third platform in the X and Y directions. Particular attention has to be paid for the seismic design of this kind of platform. The results of jacket type offshore platforms incremental dynamic analysis shows that the method is a valuable tool for studying dynamic behavior in a nonlinear range of deformation. Because of high uncertainty in the nonlinear behavior of this type of structures, it is recommended to use this method for the assessment and requalification of existing jacket type offshore platforms subjected to earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]