Ranking the Seismic Vulnerability of Masonry School Buildings according to the EC8-3 by Using Performance Curves

Abstract

ABSTRACT A simple methodology for seismic assessment of masonry building, which allows the ranking of the seismic safety of buildings according to principles and rules that are established in Part 3 of the Eurocode 8 (EC8), is presented in this work. This approach uses the concept of “performance curve”, which consists in the representation of all possible performance points (the target displacements of the EC8) associated with a given capacity curve and a response spectrum. This allows a better comparison of the overall seismic behaviour, namely a comparison of the seismic safety associated with all limit states at once, which makes the task of ranking the urgency for seismic retrofitting measures easier. This methodology was used for ranking a set of primary school masonry buildings that still exist in the region of Algarve (Portugal). This work was carried out in the context of the PERSISTAH project.