ASSESSMENT OF SEISMIC SUSCEPTIBILITY OF RC BUILDINGS

Abstract

Earthquake is one of the most destructive calamities. Many earthquakes in numerous parts of world including India have caused loss of human lives and even damaged many properties causing collapse of structures. Even though one cannot prevent earthquake, the loss caused due to it can be curtailed by adopting appropriate measures. The measures adopted should reduce damage to the structures and hence life and other losses can be decreased. Earthquake risk assessment is necessary for disaster mitigation, disaster management and emergency preparedness. Vulnerability assessment is one of the major parts of the hazard risk assessment. Seismic vulnerability of building signifies how much a structure is susceptible to the damage caused by a particular magnitude of earthquake force. The vulnerability functions acts as input parameter for loss estimation for specific buildings or building class. Here in this paper the detailed procedure to evaluate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete buildings has been studied. There are three important methods to determine the seismic inelastic displacement namely Capacity Spectrum Method, Displacement Coefficient Method and Pushover Analysis; with the help of these methods the performance and capacity of a building can be evaluated. For non linear analysis of buildings using tools, the detailed knowledge of non linear modelling is must. The non linear modelling includes development of moment-rotation relationship and thus moment-curvature curves are needed. Nonlinear modelling of frame elements and shear walls are explained in detail. Vulnerability curves or fragility curves are the one which shows the probability of failure of the given building for a given displacement under a given damage state.