Abstract
Moderate magnitude seismic events have occurred during the last decade in non-seismic areas and have highlighted that many existing buildings do not sufficiently resist these types of events. The objective of this work is to illustrate that most buildings dating from 2002–2010 constructed from wide beams, which were designed to previous earthquake resistance codes, do not offer a satisfactory seismic behaviour, and to identify which structural attributes can best help alleviate this problem. In this work the effect of a real earthquake of medium magnitude (Lorca, 2011) on buildings of three, five and eight stories with unidirectional frames of wide-beam concrete was assessed. The methodology included non-linear static (pushover) analyses and dynamic response simulations with the aim to understand the effect on the seismic performance of changing some of the geometrical and material parameters. Maximum displacements and capacity curves for the top floor of a set of representative buildings were evaluated and compared. In particular, capacity curves obtained from non-linear static (pushover) analysis are compared for different building configurations, as well as the maximum displacements obtained through non-linear dynamic analysis. This paper highlights the seismic vulnerability of buildings constructed between 2002 and 2010 and the results indicate that a higher density of infill walls (walls whose bricks are not part of the main structure) is the feature that most significantly improves the seismic behaviour of the structures analysed. Moreover, counterintuitively, incorporating stronger concrete and reinforcing steel and using alternative column arrangements only have a small positive effect on the seismic behaviour of these types of buildings.
Highlights
Moderate magnitude seismic events (5.5–6.5 degrees Richter) occurring during the last decade in areas classified as “non-seismic” have demonstrated that the design of many existing buildings is insufficient to resist these types of events
Eurocode 8 (EC 8) [7] applies to the design and construction of buildings and civil engineering works in seismic regions
The capacity curves from the non-linear static analyses were compared and maximum displacements from non-linear dynamic analysis were examined
Summary
Moderate magnitude seismic events (5.5–6.5 degrees Richter) occurring during the last decade in areas classified as “non-seismic” (those where seismic events higher than 4.0 degrees Richter are not expected) have demonstrated that the design of many existing buildings is insufficient to resist these types of events. Lorca in 2011 [5,6], highlight the poor structural performance of these buildings in earthquakes of medium magnitude. Eurocode 8 (EC 8) [7] applies to the design and construction of buildings and civil engineering works in seismic regions. The recent catastrophic outcomes after medium magnitude seismic events have been enough to prompt reconsideration of many previous studies on seismic vulnerability, forcing a change of paradigm in the way buildings are constructed and raising the question of whether the current seismic codes are sufficiently reliable. Different methods for evaluating the seismic vulnerability of buildings have been developed. Alam et al [12] have compared a number of existing seismic vulnerability assessment techniques for buildings using a multi-criteria decision-making tool. The procedures used are either linear or non-linear, and static or dynamic, according to the specific aspect to be analysed
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