Seismic performance assessment of a typified school building damaged during the 2019 Albanian earthquakes

Abstract

This study presents the seismic performance evaluation of a typified masonry school building, Shkolla 9-Vjeçare “26 Nëntori”, which was damaged by the recent earthquakes which hit Albanian territory on November 26, 2019. This building was constructed in 1985 by following the template school projects in Albanian construction practice. The current situation of the building was evaluated by considering the provisions of modern codes i.e. Eurocode 6, Eurocode 8 and Turkish building Code. Analytical model of the school building was developed using the experimental test results conducted on the brick units and mortar. Nonlinear static pushover analyses were executed to estimate the seismic capacity, the performance point, and the damage limit state levels. The performance based assessment rules were used for this objective. Deficiencies and weak points were identified by the detailed examination of the pushover curves. Results showed that selected school designed per pre-modern code is far from satisfying the desired criteria, suggesting that urgent response and necessary measures should be put into action.