Performance-based seismic assessment of capacity enhancement of building infrastructure and its cost-benefit evaluation

Abstract

Excessive damage to building infrastructure has been witnessed in some major earthquakes in Pakistan and hence requires to better understand their potential vulnerability. Some basic data was gathered in terms of features such as number of stories, age of building and construction typology, as a part of this study to evaluate seismic risk in Abbottabad city (in the North of Pakistan), Relevant study is scarce in the literature so far on the vulnerability study of Pakistan building infrastructure with and without strengthening (capacity enhancement), using performance based seismic assessment methodology. This is first of its kind of study done on the structures in Pakistan that describes the different attributes and performance in detail. To measure the seismic vulnerability of building infrastructure, the induced damage due to increased shaking force is determined. This description of the structure's vulnerability, in conjunction with the hazard, permits well informed, risk-based conclusions that can be done using performance metrics for instance collapse prevention and economic effects. Numerical modeling was performed by using available data, collected during field survey to represent exactly, the actual response of building infrastructure. Two sets of building fragility curves, before and after capacity enhancement (strengthening), are employed to describe the seismic behavior of the building infrastructure in all the cases. To calculate the losses, an inventory was composed using field survey data that contains all the structural and non-structural components.