Comfort-based Criteria for Evaluating Seismic Strengthening Performance of Building

Abstract

In modern seismic design and technologies, the building’s seismic-resistant based on non-collapse plastic deformation. According to the periodical reports of the Japan Meteorological Agency, the number of people injured due to strong earthquakes is much higher than the number of deaths. Also, the number of buildings collapsed is less than the partly damaged buildings. The report also concludes that human injuries or deaths are not a result of the collapsed building. Human injuries or deaths are due to shakings when strong earthquakes strike the building. The cause of human casualties is the collapse of non-structural elements such as ceilings, bookshelves, or machinery appliances. The report implies that the buildings designed by the latest revised seismic standards have good earthquake resistance but fail to protect human casualties. Present works proposed comfort-based criteria for evaluating the quantitative shaking of buildings. The use of comfort-based criteria is demonstrated in evaluating the strengthening case studies selection processes. The study revealed that, in general, the seismic strengthening of a building by using bracings is not effective in reducing the shaking of the building. The proposed method highly recommends using shaking quantity criteria as an evaluation tool in the seismic strengthening design of buildings to select the best output in decision-making.