Study on Structural Collapse Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Building Under Near-Fault Earthquakes

Abstract

The near-fault effect on buildings and infrastructures is a significant issue of human life and property in Taiwan because there are numerous active faults inside this island. It is well-known that special characteristics with large displacement and high velocity can be observed close to a near-fault. However, it is difficult to reproduce such a near-fault earthquake record by using the existing test facilities of National Centre for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). Thus, the experimental studies on the near-fault effect are rare. Furthermore, many buildings were severely damaged in the Meinong earthquake in 2016. Among them, some of mid- to high-rise buildings were severely damaged or collapsed and caused numerous casualties. In recent years, more and more residential or commercial buildings were constructed. Thus, the casualty risk caused by the collapse of mid- to high-rise buildings should not be underestimated, and the method of seismic assessment for mid- to high-rise buildings to identify the building with high collapse risk becomes a critical issue. NCREE establishes the Tainan Laboratory to equip with a high performance six degree-of-freedom seismic simulation testing system which can simulate the near-fault motions. After the Tainan Laboratory is completed, NCREE provided better seismic experimental services to the government agencies, academia and industry which is beneficial to improving public safety against earthquake disasters.This study focuses on the experimental result of collapse tests on the new shaking table in Tainan Laboratory. After the shaking table tests, the test result is compared with the proposed seismic assessment method. This experiment can offer abundant information of RC frames collapse behavior and help the researchers to upgrade existing analytical models to make better prediction for RC buildings’ seismic behavior, also, to raise up the more economical improvement.KeywordsNear-fault effectReinforced concrete structureShaking table testMid- and high-rise building