A Critical Review of the R.C. Frame Existing Building Assessment Procedure According to Eurocode 8 and Italian Seismic Code

Abstract

In the European seismic countries the assessment of existing structures is a priority, since the majority of the building heritage was designed according to out-of-date or even no seismic codes. The uncertainties about the nonlinear behavior of the structures are, therefore, relevant and the nonlinear response should be treated directly, with corresponding strong increase in complexity of the assessment procedure. This issue was taken into account in this work; in particular, the assessment of two irregular reinforced concrete frame buildings was performed, according to both Italian Seismic Code and Eurocode 8 with the following aims: (i) checking the consistency of the results obtained applying the two considered Codes; (ii) identifying and clarifying the aspects which may lead to different possible interpretations of the code rules; (iii) suggesting simplified approaches or improvements for the assessment procedure, concerning the evaluation of both seismic demand and capacity of the structural members.