Non-structural Damage Research Articles

Comparative analysis of the sustainability and seismic performance of a social interest house using RC moment frames and bahareque as structural systems

This study compares the seismic performance and environmental impact of a social housing structure designed with reinforced concrete with a structure using Guadua angustifolia “Kunth” cane. The aim is to contrast the implementation of an ecological material such as the Guadua cane, which is an accessible alternative due to its cost and construction time, versus the traditional reinforced concrete (RC) construction method. Both applied to social housing structures. The seismic performance of both methods is analyzed through nonlinear static analysis (pushover) with the objective of establishing the performance; structural and nonstructural damage, performance point, maximum displacements, and structural elements that induce structural failure; and acting forces, against a design earthquake (established by the NEC DS 2015 Standard), with a return period of 475 years. The environmental impact is evaluated through a life cycle assessment of the structure (LCA). Thus, the embodied carbon obtained from each structural element (foundations, beams, columns, floors, and roof support elements) was determined, considering material manufacturing, transportation, and construction. The results obtained demonstrated a higher seismic performance, with 70% less environmental impact on the Guadua cane structure.

Post-earthquake seismic assessment of residential buildings following Sarpol-e Zahab (Iran) earthquake (Mw7.3) part 1: Damage types and damage states

Following a disaster, a quick and reliable evaluation of structural damage and its classification is one of the crucial steps to making decisions and disaster management. Based on a reliable evaluation of structural damage and proper classification of buildings, decisions related to structural performance (functionality), repair possibility, or in severe cases, a replacement could be made. The results of current research are obtained from a comprehensive and meticulous investigation of more than 81 damaged steel and RC buildings after the Sarpol-e Zahab (Iran) earthquake. First, a detailed explanation of various types of structural and non-structural damage to buildings is provided. Then, based on the severity, extent, and types of damage and the observed residual drift for steel structures, buildings are classified into five damage states. The damage types are the more frequently observed damage in different elements. The inherent quantitative classification of buildings into five damage states makes this approach a precise and useful tool to investigate buildings more reliably following earthquakes. Part-1 of this research (current paper) discusses various types of observed damage and the classification of buildings into damage states. In part-2 of this research (accompanying paper), a damage index is proposed based on the results of part-1 and empirical vulnerability curves for different types of damaged buildings are developed.

Earthquakes and Archaeological Heritage Sites: The Case of February 6 Earthquakes

Earthquakes, one of the most destructive disasters in the world and in our country, occur as a result of tectonic movements in the earth's crust. Earthquakes have an important place among the natural disasters that occur on earth and have affected many civilizations throughout history. Archaeological heritage sites are valuable resources for understanding and preserving human history and past cultures. Earthquakes are disasters that have serious impacts on archaeological heritage sites. Earthquakes cause structural and non-structural damages to cultural heritage sites and even their complete destruction. Archaeological sites are particularly vulnerable to the effects of earthquakes. Damage such as collapse of walls, collapse of columns or damage to foundations threaten the integrity of archaeological heritage sites. Turkey has been home to various civilizations throughout history due to its location, fertile soils and favorable climate. Therefore, it has many important archaeological heritage sites. However, Turkey is one of the countries with high earthquake risk worldwide. Its archaeological heritage sites are also under earthquake risk. The recent earthquake of February 6, 2023 was one of the most important earthquakes in Turkey. The region affected by the earthquakes is a region with cultural continuity since the early periods of history. Archaeological sites in the region were also damaged by the earthquakes. In this study, it is aimed to examine the effects of earthquakes on archaeological heritage sites and to evaluate the conditions of archaeological heritage sites in the earthquake zone in the earthquake zone in the context of the February 06, 2023 Earthquakes.

Study of genetic variants and their clinical significance in Mexican pediatric patients with epilepsy

BackgroundThe use of novel and accurate techniques to identify genetic variants (with or without a record in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database) improves diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics for patients with epilepsy, especially in populations for whom such techniques exist. The aim of this study was to find a genetic profile in Mexican pediatric epilepsy patients by focusing on ten genes associated with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). MethodsThis was a prospective, analytical, cross-sectional study of pediatric patients with epilepsy. Informed consent was granted by the patients’ guardians or parents. Genomic DNA from the patients was sequenced using next-generation sequencing (NGS). For statistical analysis, Fisher's exact, Chi-square or Mann-Whitney U, and OR (95% CI) tests were performed, with significance values of p < 0.05. ResultsFifty-five patients met the inclusion criteria (female 58.2%, ages 1–16 years); 32 patients had controlled epilepsy (CTR), and 23 had DRE. Four hundred twenty-two genetic variants were identified (71.3% with a known SNP registered in the NCBI database). A dominant genetic profile consisting of four haplotypes of the SCN1A, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 genes was identified in most of the patients studied. When comparing the results between patients with DRE and CTR, the prevalence of polymorphisms in the SCN1A (rs10497275, rs10198801, and rs67636132), CYP2D6 (rs1065852), and CYP3A4 (rs2242480) genes showed statistical significance (p = 0.021). Finally, the number of missense genetic variants in patients in the nonstructural subgroup was significantly higher in DRE than in CTR (1 [0–2] vs. 3 [2–4]; p = 0.014). ConclusionsThe Mexican pediatric epilepsy patients included in this cohort presented a characteristic genetic profile infrequent in the Mexican population. SNP rs1065852 (CYP2D6*10) is associated with DRE, especially with nonstructural damage. The presence of three genetic alterations affecting the CYP2B6, CYP2C9, and CYP2D6 cytochrome genes is associated with nonstructural DRE.

Seismic response reduction using a tuned pendulum pounding mass damper: Experimental verification of superior performance

The recent seismic events have underscored the importance of resilient designs in mitigating losses to life and property. While tuned mass dampers (TMDs) have demonstrated their effectiveness in reducing structural vibrations, they have limitations in safeguarding buildings against non-structural damage caused by earthquakes. Additionally, their efficacy can be overwhelmed in high-magnitude seismic events. This paper introduces a novel device, called the tuned pendulum pounding mass damper (PTMD), that adapts the TMD by introducing a pounding surface near its static equilibrium position. The hypothesis is that this modification will yield superior performance in earthquake mitigation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a shake table experiment on a PTMD installed in a small-scale building model with a viscoelastic material to model the pounding effects. The study demonstrates that the PTMD's tuning frequency ratio can be analytically determined, although careful selection of the pounding stiffness and restitution coefficient is essential for optimal design. With a mass ratio of 1%, the PTMD significantly reduced the acceleration response. In comparison to the TMD, the PTMD exhibits greater robustness and effectiveness in reducing responses across a broader range of frequencies. Conversely, the TMD may amplify structural responses when detuned. The PTMD's exceptional capabilities position it as a promising candidate for shaping the future of infrastructure and contributing to seismic mitigation policies, thereby enhancing overall disaster resilience.

Performance assessment and calculation of robustness of high-rise diagrid tube structures with various configurations

Resilience is an appropriate criterion for evaluating the ability of a structural system to reduce the probability of damage caused by an event. To date, the seismic resilience of novel structural systems such as diagrid structures has not been studied. In the present research, the effect of various perimeter geometric patterns on the robustness index of diagrid structures is evaluated. For this purpose, six diagrid structures of 24 and 48 stories with perimeter configuration angles of 49°, 67°, and 74° are designed. The seismic capacity of the structures is calculated using the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) based on the maximum story drift parameter and under near-field earthquakes. Next, the fragility function of these structures in limit states are determined based on lognormal statistical distribution. Seismic performance levels for diagrid structures are also developed. The proposed formulation in the MCEER report is used to calculate the loss function of structures. In addition to the structural damage, non-structural damage is also considered in estimating the seismic resilience of the structures, according to the HAZUS guideline. Furthermore, an additional factor is defined in the loss function as an assurance of the quality of construction. Finally, the resilience of high-rise buildings with diagrid structures is determined for a specific hazard level. The results show that diagrid structures have relatively high robustness and using perimeter triangular elements can reduce the degradation of structures after the earthquake. As observed in the results, considering damage to non-structural elements causes a decrease in the quality function of the studied structures. It is demonstrated that increasing the perimeter configuration angles decreases the robustness index of diagrid structures. Based on this analysis results, insufficient knowledge of the quality of construction can decline the seismic performance of diagrid structures by up to 6%.

Characterizing wind-structure interaction for performance-based wind design of tall buildings

Performance-based wind design (PBWD) has been receiving a great deal of attention from the wind and structural engineering communities. This is specifically highlighted with the release of the ASCE pre-standard for PBWD (2019). The PBWD of tall building requires a series of steps one of which is the interaction parameter, i.e. characterizing the interaction of the tall building with the wind field. In the studies involving slender structures-such as tall buildings, it is essential to consider this interaction parameter which is a function of the time-varying aerodynamic loads. The aerodynamic loads consist of the turbulent loads due to fluctuating wind, known as buffeting loads, and the self-excited loads resulting from the interaction of the structural motions with wind, referred as aeroelastic loads. Flexible structures can become unstable at a critical wind speed, known as flutter speed, wherein a diverging motion of the structure occurs. Aerodynamic instability that is caused by self-excited loads generally doesn’t occur in tall buildings within their design wind speeds but certainly needs to be considered in a wind-structure interaction analysis, particularly when tall buildings become increasingly slender and are allowed to enter post-elastic region. This study aims to characterize the interaction parameter in the PBWD of tall buildings by including the self-excited loads in its response analysis corresponding to the three-degree-of-freedom response motions of the building in along-wind, across-wind, and torsional directions. For this purpose, the flutter derivatives that are used to represent the self-excited loads in frequency domain are first obtained from wind tunnel tests of scaled section models of the structure and then converted into approximate coefficients known as Rational Function Coefficients (RFC) as part of Rational Function Approximations (RFA) of the self-excited loads in Laplace or time domain. The wind loads on a structure in time domain are calculated by combining both the buffeting loads and self-excited loads associated with the calculated RFC. The non-linear structural behavior of a 44-story and a 60-story tall building each is studied using nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis in extreme wind conditions and then observed for any flutter-like instabilities. The concept PBWD is applied considering the performance objective involving those associated with occupant comfort and structural or non-structural damages.

Simulation-based consequence models of seismic direct loss and repair time for archetype reinforced concrete frames

Seismic risk management of building portfolios requires a reliable evaluation of earthquake-induced losses. This is commonly performed using consequence models linking structure-specific damage states (DSs) experienced by a building to a given loss metric (or decision variable). This study demonstrates a simulation-based procedure that derives refined probabilistic consequence models considering two essential loss metrics: direct-loss and repair-time ratios (repair cost or time normalised by the corresponding reconstruction values). Nine case-study reinforced concrete frames with various heights and design-code levels are developed to represent common residential buildings in Italy and the Mediterranean region. The proposed procedure starts by defining building-level, structure-specific DSs that reflect the increasing structural and nonstructural damage for the nine frames. Their seismic response is then assessed by analysing two-dimensional nonlinear numerical models and deriving building-level fragility relationships. Next, component-based direct-loss and repair-time analysis is conducted via the FEMA P-58 methodology, which computes such metrics at multiple ground-shaking intensities using Monte Carlo sampling. The consequence models are finally characterised by fitting probabilistic distributions to the direct-loss and repair-time realisations after conditioning them on the respective global DSs sustained by each case-study frame. This procedure enables deriving enhanced consequence models that can be easily implemented in risk analysis of building portfolios to obtain quick loss estimates. This study finally sheds some light on the possibility of correlating repair time to direct loss, which might be useful in estimating indirect losses resulting from downtime, particularly in cases where repair-time data or models are unavailable.

Life‐cycle benefits estimation for hybrid seismic‐resistant self‐centering braced frames

AbstractThe hybrid self‐centering braced frames (HSBFs) with shape memory alloy‐based braces (SMABs) and viscous dampers (VDs) are an emerging structural system developed for improving the seismic resilience of traditional braced frames (e.g., buckling restrained braced frames [BRBFs]) and self‐centering braced frames (SCBFs) by reducing residual inter‐story drifts (RIDs) and floor acceleration responses simultaneously. Nevertheless, the excellent performance of HSBFs is captured by introducing high initial construction costs. This paper aims to highlight the benefits of HSBFs compared with BRBFs and SCBFs by investigating the earthquake‐induced life‐cycle costs. To this end, 6‐story BRBF, SCBF, and HSBF are designed separately to achieve the same maximum inter‐story drifts under design basis earthquakes (DBE) for a fair comparison. The advanced numerical models of the considered systems were developed, and nonlinear dynamic analyses were conducted to obtain the structural seismic responses under various intensities. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) was adopted for considering the modeling uncertainty. The life‐cycle costs were subsequently estimated based on the revised HAZUS loss estimation method. The influence of RIDs, initial construction costs of SMABs and VDs, and values of contents inside buildings were comprehensively investigated. It has been found that HSBF can achieve better performance in reducing seismic loss than BRBF and SCBF due to its excellent capability of controlling structural and nonstructural damage. SCBF may show higher seismic loss than BRBFs, given high RID limits for demolition or high building contents’ value, highlighting the importance of controlling floor acceleration responses of SCBFs. The life‐cycle benefits of BRBFs, SCBFs, and HSBFs are highly influenced by the RIDs, initial construction costs of SMABs and VDs, building contents’ values, and building's lifetime. HSBFs show better life‐cycle benefits than SCBFs when the building's lifetime is not lower than 50 years. Compared to BRBF, the life‐cycle cost effectiveness of SCBF can be only achieved when the initial cost of SMABs is lower than 1.21 times that of BRBs for the building with 50 years’ lifetime; the life‐cycle cost effectiveness of HSBF6 can be only achieved when the initial cost of SMABs or VDs is lower than 1.84 times that of BRBs for the building with 50 years’ lifetime. It has been concluded that reducing the initial costs of SMABs and VDs is critical and essential for increasing the life‐cycle economic benefits of SCBFs and HSBFs and promoting their real‐world applications.

Investigating the effect of using Multi-Level Yielding Pipe Damper dampers in steel structures under earthquake force in the horizontal direction

Multi-level Pipe Damper (MPD) recently proposed by the authors is a passive control device to reduce the seismic vibration. In this research, seismic response of steel structures equipped with MPD is studied. To evaluate the effects of the proposed damper, typical 8 story steel buildings are modeled and their seismic responses under three earthquake excitations are investigated using dynamic nonlinear time-history analyses by ETABS program. Results show the effectiveness of MPD to altering the seismic response of the structures. Moreover, using MPD decreases the structural and nonstructural damages noticeably by limiting the inter story drifts because of the secondary hardening branch of force-displacement respectively proving the effectiveness of the proposed damper as a retrofitting technique for structures at high seismic risk areas.

Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Joist and Wide-Beam Floors during the 26 November 2019 Albania Earthquake

Beams with width greater than their depth and depth equal to the depth of the slab (concealed wide beams) are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Albania. A large number of RC buildings with wide beams were hit by a strong Mw6.4 earthquake on 26 November 2019. The earthquake hit two of the most densely populated areas in Albania and caused widespread damage to these buildings. This paper aims to provide an updated view on the seismic performance of buildings with wide beams in light of the new field data following the 26 November 2019 Albania earthquake. To this end, a thorough literature review including experimental and field observations from past earthquakes is presented and data from field visits in Albania are described. It was found that damage to the joists and wide beams themselves was limited, even when the buildings suffered significant non-structural or structural damage in other elements as a result of the earthquake. A discussion on the behavior of wide beam–column frames based on nonlinear structural analyses and tests from the literature is presented. Furthermore, the implications of the results of the analysis for the seismic performance of RC buildings are discussed and confronted with observations from the 2019 Albania earthquake. Based on the literature review, further experimental research on wide beams with longer and more realistic span lengths is recommended.

Incorporation of BIM-based probabilistic non-structural damage assessment into agent-based post-earthquake evacuation simulation

Earthquakes can cause severe damage to structural and non-structural elements of buildings; consequently, they pose high risks to human lives. To mitigate such risks, attention has been paid to enhancing the indoor environment for increased building safety. Yet little effort has been made to assess a building occupants' evacuation behaviors in response to damage to the indoor environment. This paper addresses this issue with a novel simulation framework that couples human behaviors with changes to the indoor building environment during post-earthquake evacuation. In particular, we present a building information modelling (BIM)-based prototype that simulates seismic damage to the non-structural indoor elements and visualizes its impacts on evacuation using a color-coded heat map. The simulated damage is then used as input to an agent-based model for post-earthquake evacuation. Using a probabilistic method to assess the non-structural elements' damage states, we are able to evaluate the impact of indoor damage on the evacuation process. We performed a trial of our prototype for a hypothetical earthquake in an educational building. The results revealed how the average evacuation time would increase as the earthquake intensity increases (from 38.6 s for the no-damage scenario to 122.9 for the highest-damage scenario). The proposed prototype has the potential to be joined with other tools, such as finite-element-based simulation, to incorporate structural analysis as well. Planners and designers can explicitly use our model's output to analyze the post-earthquake evacuation with the indoor non-structural damage to assess different building design geometries that increase the chances of a suitable evacuation process.

Correlation Analysis Between Observed Loss of Function in Health Facilities and Seismic Actions

ABSTRACT Hospitals are a fundamental component of a country’s health system and are considered essential facilities for dealing with the consequences of natural disasters. Nevertheless, hospitals may be highly vulnerable structures. Despite the importance of these facilities, many hospitals have resulted severely damaged, and some of them have lost functionality even when subject to moderate earthquakes. In order to better understand the impact and influence of the seismic performance of non-structural components and systems on health facilities loss of function, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the loss of function degree observed in 17 hospitals affected by earthquakes with moment magnitudes (Mw) ranging between 5.1 and 8.8, located in countries such as the United States, Taiwan, Türkiye, Chile, Italy, El Salvador, Peru, Spain, Ecuador, and Mexico. The observed losses of function are correlated with structural and non-structural damages and the seismic demands imposed by the earthquakes, estimated from the accelerograms recorded at the closest seismological stations. As a result, the seismic demands triggering the non-structural damage states, and consequently the degree of function loss of the health infrastructure, are presented. Loss of function is classified as low or null, temporary, and permanent. It is observed that the seismic demands that limit the operation during earthquakes correspond to average roof drifts in the order of 1.0‰ and average peak floor accelerations in the range 0.16–0.23 g, highlighting the need for using seismic isolation technologies and implementing strict nonstructural design measures.

Risk-aware navigation in industrial plants at risk of NaTech accidents

Industrial plants are susceptible to NaTech disasters during earthquakes caused by damage to structural and non-structural components and the potential release of toxic materials. To mitigate and manage this risk, the ROSSINI project was initiated and its results are described here for what concerns industrial plant worker safety and their risk-based navigation in emergency situations. The project includes a data acquisition system consisting of a data acquisition board and an array of different sensor technologies, which process the seismic event and other meteorological information before passing them as inputs towards the risk identification and evaluation (RIE) modules. Here, the risks associated with structural and non-structural damage and health risks associated with the release of harmful substances are estimated and combined to form a navigable risk map. This map is used within a purpose-built risk-based navigation application for the safe egress of workers from an industrial plant. To demonstrate the implementation of this system, two case-study industrial plant layouts consisting of buildings, non-structural components, liquid storage tanks, piping systems, and chemical storage vessels, were devised. This paper describes the project's implementation in these contexts and illustrates the results via several example scenarios.

Experimental investigation of multi-layered strong wood-frame shear walls with nonstructural Type X gypsum wallboard layers under cyclic load

A fundamental premise for the design of resilient light frame timber buildings in areas of high seismic activity consists of achieving strong shear walls while keeping nonstructural damage to a minimum, especially by preventing the brittle failure of Type X gypsum wallboard (GWB) finish layers. Under this premise, it has been commonly thought that the stronger the shear wall the lesser the structural contribution of the finishes, and therefore the effect of GWB finishes in strong timber shear walls has been typically ignored by design codes and mechanical models. In the research reported in this paper, the influence of nonstructural finishes on the structural characteristics of a strong light frame shear wall was experimentally and numerically investigated. The wall evaluated in this paper, denoted here Multi-Layered Strong Shear Wall (MLSSW), is representative of walls located at the 1st story of a 7-story building located in Chile, a country where the level of seismic activity is high. The MLSSW has a continuous rod system, double OSB sheathing, robust timber framing, closely spaced nails to attach the OSB sheathing layers to wood-frame members, and is covered at both sides by two layers of screwed Type X GWB. The characteristics of the MLSSW, particularly the quantity and type of nonstructural finishes, are different from those of typical light frame timber walls. Full-scale connection-level tests, both monotonic and cyclic, are reported first, followed by descriptions of the full-scale cyclic assembly-level tests. For comparison purposes, a bare strong wall (i.e., without the GWB layers) was tested as well. The structural response of the MLSSW was evaluated in terms of stiffness, strength, energy dissipation and plastic deformation characteristics. The applicability of the SDPWS analytical model was also evaluated, as well as the applicability of existing numerical models to predict the cyclic behavior of the MLSSW.

Non-contact diagnosis for gearbox based on the fusion of multi-sensor heterogeneous data

Non-contact sensing technology plays an important role in the health monitoring of the gearbox. However, a single non-contact measurement is challenging to achieve the simultaneous monitoring of both structural and non-structural damages. In order to explore the fusion mechanism of multi-sensor heterogeneous measurements, acoustic and thermal characteristics of the gearbox under typical fault states are analyzed, and it is verified the fusion of infrared thermal (IRT) images and acoustic data integrates complementary fault information. In this paper, an attention-enhanced information fusion diagnosis network (AIFN-IA) is proposed for the complementary fusion of IRT images and acoustic data. Firstly, the acoustic data is converted into images by the non-hyperparameter encoding method and then fused with IRT images in data-level. Secondly, the limited shuffle attention module is designed to adaptively focus on the fault elements hidden in the complex fusion features. Finally, experimental data verify the effectiveness of the proposed AIFN-IA method in recognizing six structural and non-structural damages of the gearbox. Compared with seven state-of-the-art methods, the proposed AIFN-IA method performs best in extracting discriminating features with the highest diagnosis accuracy. Moreover, the proposed AIFN-IA method can still achieve satisfactory results under the challenges of small sample datasets and strong noise interference, which is more competitive in real industrial applications.

Seismic assessment and finite element modeling of traditional vs innovative point fixed glass facade systems (PFGFS)

In the last decades, recent earthquakes have further highlighted the high vulnerability of non-structural components. Post-earthquake damage due to building envelope, equipment and building contents can lead to substantial economic losses in terms of repair costs and daily activity interruption (downtime). Moreover, non-structural damage can represent a life-safety threat for both occupants and pedestrians. These considerations confirm the crucial need for developing low-damage systems for either structural or non-structural elements. This paper aims to assess the seismic performance of glazed facade systems, widely adopted in modern buildings, focusing on point fixed glass facade systems (PFGFSs), also referred to as “spider glazing”. In this work, a numerical investigation is developed to study the seismic performance of such systems at both local-connection level through a 3D FEM in ABAQUS as well as at global system level through a simplified lumped plasticity model in SAP 2000 to assess the overall in-plane capacity of the facade. Based on the local connection and global facade system behavior, a novel low-damage connection system is herein proposed, and a parametric study is carried out on the key parameters influencing the facade capacity. The benefits of implementing low-damage connection details are highlighted by an increase of the in-plane capacity of the facade system when compared to a traditional solution. To further investigate the potential of the proposed low-damage details in preserving the integrity of the facade system itself, non-linear time history analyses have been carried out on a case-study building equipped with the innovative PFGFSs.

Emerging superelastic SMA core damping elements for seismic application

Structural and non-structural damage reported after recent strong earthquakes promotes a fundamental shift in structural design target from “collapse resistance” to “fast structural function recovery”. A unique class of metal called superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) has been emerging as a promising solution to enhance the seismic resilience of structures. SMA core damping elements are the basic constituents of many newly-proposed seismic resistant members or devices, and they are directly responsible for the safety, integrity, and economical efficiency of the structures using them. This mini-review paper offers a comprehensive summary of the emerging SMA core damping elements recently developed, covering SMA monofilament wires, fibers, bars, flat plates, U-shaped plates, angles, cables, rings, helical springs, disc springs, and friction springs. These SMA core elements are suitable for various seismic application scenarios, and their efficiency have been verified through either full-scale or proof-of-concept experimental studies. The basic working principles, advantages, and potential shortcomings of these elements are discussed, and future research needs are outlined.

Towards a holistic performance-based design approach

Miguel Martinez-Paneda describes current performance-based design uses, and advocates the potential for its wider application in a holistic approach. Synopsis Performance-based design (PBD) originated as a response to the considerable structural and non-structural damage experienced by buildings during earthquakes in the 1990s. Its application is gradually extending into other fields in a trend that is likely to continue as the power of computational and analysis tools increases. PBD has the potential to deliver more resilient and reliable designs than a prescriptive code-based approach, and to allow the use of innovative materials and technologies, provided that reliability targets and performance goals are met. A move away from a one-size-fits-all code-based approach has the potential to result in significantly more economical and lower-carbon designs. This article describes current PBD uses and state of the art, and advocates the potential for its wider application in a holistic approach.

Rapid assessment of the public buildings after the February 25th, 2022 West Pasaman Earthquake

The earthquake that occurred on February 25th, 2022 (6.2 M) and the aftershock in the West Pasaman Regency, West Sumatra Province has caused damages to infrastructure and community settlements. One of those affected by the Pasaman Earthquake 2022 are public buildings. To determine the level of public building damage, an assessment should be carried out before reoccupying the buildings. In this study, a rapid assessment of damaged public buildings was conducted after the Pasaman Earthquake by the Disaster Study Center of Andalas University team. The assessed buildings include the buildings of Balerong Hall, Ibnu Sina Hospital, Grand Mosque, Population and Civil Registration Agency (Disdukcapil) office, Regional Public Hospital, and Elementary School (SDN) 22 of Talamau. The results of the assessment show that in general, these public buildings have non-structural damages, such as cracks in the walls and ceiling crashes from their positions. Meanwhile, in the buildings of Elementary School (SDN) 22 Talamau, Grand Mosque, and Disdukcapil, it is found that there are some structural damages observed, such as cracks on the columns. The main factor causing the damage is the low quality of the concrete in the columns. Recommendations for repairing the damaged building are also discussed in this study.