Fragility and comfortability curves development and seismic risk assessment of a masonry building under earthquakes induced by geothermal power plants operation

Abstract

This research is an attempt to estimate the seismic risk of geothermal power plants (GPPs) operation on the masonry buildings located in the vicinity of these infrastructures through a probabilistic framework. In this regard, a typical masonry building in Germany is considered. In the first part, the fragility and comfortability curves of this building are established. For this purpose, a set of 30 ground motions recorded due to GPPs activity are used for performing elaborated three-dimensional nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis to construct the fragility and comfortability curves. In the second part of the research work, by using the Monte-Carlo simulation technique and adopting the hazard model capable of simulating both seismological characteristics and ground motion intensities, the required number of probable hazard scenarios are generated for different ranges of GPPs injection flow rates. Afterward, the seismic risk imposed on the masonry building is evaluated by considering the developed fragility and comfortability curves. The outcomes highlight that the risk of facing structural damage is not significant; however, the disturbance of buildings’ residents is highly probable and can lead to considerable seismic risk. In addition, in the close vicinity of the earthquake epicenter (less than 5 km), the estimated risk increases tangibly in comparison with the larger distances (more than 15 km).