Seismic Vulnerability of Low- and Mid-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Malaysia Designed by Considering Only Gravity Loads

Abstract

This study focuses on seismic vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete buildings designed by considering only gravity loads. Fragility curves are developed for a three-story reinforced concrete office frame building and a four-story reinforced concrete school building with unreinforced masonry infill walls representative of the essential facilities in Malaysian Peninsula. A simplified modeling approach is adopted for fragility analysis, which can effectively reduce the computational effort. A set of fragility curves are developed in terms of peak ground acceleration with lognormal cumulative distribution functions. The fragility analysis shows that the seismic performance of the structures met the desirable performance level recommended by current seismic code, demonstrating low vulnerability of the structures within Malaysian Peninsula. It is also shown that the soil condition should be taken into consideration for effective seismic vulnerability assessment. Finally, the fragility curves developed in this study are compared to those of HAZUS.