EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE DAMAGE CLASSIFICATION METHOD WITH THE PERFORMANCE CURVES OF R/C STRUCTURES DERIVED FROM RECORDED ACCELERATIONS

Abstract

Once a catastrophic earthquake occurs, many buildings may be affected. Some buildings are severely damaged and may collapse during a following strong aftershock. It is needed to conduct a rapid inspection to evaluate the buildings in the affected area. “Manual for post-earthquake rehabilitation techniques for buildings (draft)” was developed in 1986 to evaluate the damage class of the buildings based on the visual observation. Recent earthquakes revealed that it becomes quite difficult to conduct visual inspection because structural members are covered by the finishings and many highrise buildings were constructed. The author has been conducting a series of research to develop a new method to evaluate the damage class with instrumented sensors based on the capacity spectrum method. The capacity curve is derived from the measured accelerations and displacements calculated from accelerations with double integral. The proposed system can predict the possible damage level during the maximum aftershock. However, the damage class according to the proposed system and to the guidelines based on the visual observation has not been compared. The earthquake insurance also conducts the visual investigation and evaluate the damage class to estimate the earthquake insurance premium. The damage class according to the earthquake insurance is also compared.