Case studies on the seismic resilience of reinforced concrete shear wall buildings and steel dual concentrically braced buildings

Abstract

This paper investigates various performance measures to assess the seismic resilience of low-to-high-rise multistory RC shear wall and steel dual concentrically braced buildings as dual seismic force-resisting systems in California. The performance measures include the risk of structural collapse, earthquake-induced repair costs, life-cycle cost, repair times, and seismic resilience. Six buildings, consisting of five-, 10-, and 15-story configurations, were selected and analyzed using the response spectrum method. The design of these buildings followed the provisions of ASCE/SEI 7-16, ACI 318-14, and AISC 341-16. To accurately simulate the structural behavior, nonlinear numerical models of the buildings were developed in the OpenSees software. Response history analyses were conducted to evaluate the dynamic behavior of each building until structural collapse, considering far-field ground motion records from FEMA P-695. The study also utilized a probabilistic building-specific loss assessment methodology provided in FEMA P-58 guideline, which explicitly accounts for the main sources of variability related to earthquake hazards and structural response. In general, the results of the probabilistic seismic performance assessment demonstrated that the code-compliant steel dual concentrically braced buildings performed poorly compared to the RC shear wall buildings, regardless of the number of stories. Specifically, the steel dual concentrically braced buildings exhibited a lower resilience index, especially in the case of low-rise buildings (i.e., five-story) during strong earthquake events.