Abstract: The structure's failure to withstand heavier loads is primarily caused by their unreasonable failure modes. In order to optimize the failure modes of structures, a five-storey and three-bay reinforced concrete plane frame is established, based on the fiber model using OpenSees. Ten different ground motions are selected according to the site conditions as the input of an IDA analysis. The weakest failure mode of the structure under the failure criterion is obtained based on IDA curves. Finally, three approaches are employed to improve the structure's failure modes. The results considering both the order of the failure section in the failure path and energy dissipation occurring only in beam sections to achieve the “strong column weak beam”, have the best superiority to improve the seismic performance. The optimization of structure's failure modes based on the IDA method can also be applied to other structural systems, providing a new way for the seismic design.