On the vulnerability assessment of monumental buildings

In all European countries the will to conserve the building heritage is very strong. Unfortunately, large areas in Europe are characterised by a high level of seismic hazard and the vulnerability of ancient masonry structures is often relevant. The large number of monumental buildings in urban areas requires facing the problem with a methodology that can be applied at territorial scale, with simplified models which need little easily obtainable, data. Within the Risk-UE project, a new methodology has been stated for the seismic vulnerability assessment of monumental buildings, which considers two different approaches: a macroseismic model, to be used with macroseismic intensity hazard maps, and a mechanical based model, to be applied when the hazard is provided in terms of peak ground accelerations and spectral values. Both models can be used with data of different reliability and depth. This paper illustrates the theoretical basis and defines the parameters of the two models. An application to an important church is presented.     

Development of seismic fragility surfaces for reinforced concrete buildings by means of nonlinear time‐history analysis

Fragility curves are generally developed using a single parameter to relate the level of shaking to the expected structural damage. The main goal of this work is to use several parameters to characterize the earthquake ground motion. The fragility curves will, therefore, become surfaces when the ground motion is represented by two parameters. To this end, the roles of various strong‐motion parameters on the induced damage in the structure are compared through nonlinear time‐history numerical calculations. A robust structural model that can be used to perform numerous nonlinear dynamic calculations, with an acceptable cost, is adopted. The developed model is based on the use of structural elements with concentrated nonlinear damage mechanics and plasticity‐type behavior. The relations between numerous ground‐motion parameters, characterizing different aspects of the shaking, and the computed damage are analyzed and discussed. Natural and synthetic accelerograms were chosen/computed based on a consideration of the magnitude‐distance ranges of design earthquakes. A complete methodology for building fragility surfaces based on the damage calculation through nonlinear numerical analysis of multi‐degree‐of‐freedom systems is proposed. The fragility surfaces are built to represent the probability that a given damage level is reached (or exceeded) for any given level of ground motion characterized by the two chosen parameters. The results show that an increase from one to two ground‐motion parameters leads to a significant reduction in the scatter in the fragility analysis and allows the uncertainties related to the effect of the second ground‐motion parameter to be accounted for within risk assessments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic risk assessment for the mega-city of Istanbul: Ductility, strength and maximum interstory drift demands

This study investigates the seismic demands due to the catastrophic 1999 M_w=7.4 Kocaeli and the M_w=7.1 Duzce earthquakes. The inelastic response spectra for the Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes are investigated for systems with known strength and ductility. An analytical fiber element model is developed for a typical reinforced concrete building in Turkey. The interstory drifts are calculated from nonlinear dynamic analysis using 26 recorded strong-motion data from the 1999 Kocaeli and the Duzce earthquakes. In the dynamic analysis, the structural members are modeled by employing distributed plasticity fiber elements and both geometrical as well as material nonlinearities are taken into account. This study shows that the ductility and interstory drift demands due to the Kocaeli and the Duzce earthquakes were very severe (well above the code prescribed values) even for moderately inelastic structures. It is apparent from the results that the forward directivity effect is the most influential factor on the interstory drift demand. Both the distance to the fault rupture and the site conditions affect seismic demands, but the site conditions and the local topography are more influential than the distance from the fault rupture. This study shows that substantial damage should be expected in a future earthquake at all districts of Istanbul, but especially at Avcilar, Cekmece, Fatih, Bakirkoy and the Zeytinburnu districts. It is also shown that base isolation may substantially improve the performance of a structure in the inelastic domain and base isolated structures may be designed for lower minimum lateral strengths and higher strength reduction factors.     

Static vulnerability of an existing r.c. structure and seismic retrofitting by CFRP and base-isolation: A case study

The assessment of the static vulnerability under gravity loads of existing reinforced concrete (r.c.) framed buildings is a serious problem that requires the use of reliable methodologies to evaluate ductile and brittle mechanisms. The present work compares alternative formulations of member chord rotation and section and joint shear strength, proposed by Italian and European seismic codes and guidelines and other expressions available in the scientific literature. To this end, a r.c. framed building built sixty years ago with bi-directional (perimeter) and mono-directional (interior) plane frames, originally designed for five storeys then elevated to six during construction, is studied. A full characterization of the structure and its materials is carried out by means of destructive and non-destructive methods. Then, retrofitting based on the use of both innovative material, such as carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP), and technology, such as base-isolation, are adopted to improve the static and seismic performances of the original structure. Finally, nonlinear analyses are carried out on a three-dimensional fibre model of the original and retrofitted structures, where an elastic linear law idealizes the behaviour of the CFRP up to tension failure and viscoelastic linear and bilinear models are used to idealize the behaviour of the elastomeric and sliding bearings, respectively.