In this paper, empirical fragility curves for reinforced concrete buildings are derived, based on post-earthquake damage data collected in the aftermath of earthquakes occurred in Italy in the period 1976–2012. These data, made available through an online platform called Da.D.O., provide information on building position, building characteristics and damage detected on different structural components. A critical review of this huge amount of data is carried out to guarantee the consistency among all the considered databases. Then, an in-depth analysis of the degree of completeness of the survey campaign is made, aiming at the identification of the Municipalities subjected to a partial survey campaign, which are discarded from fragility analysis. At the end of this stage, only the Irpinia 1980 and L’Aquila 2009 databases are considered for further elaborations, as fully complying with these criteria. The resulting database is then integrated with non-inspected buildings sited in less affected areas (assumed undamaged), to account for the negative evidence of damage. The PGA evaluated from the shakemaps of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and a metric based on six damage levels according to EMS-98 are used for fragility analysis. The damage levels are obtained from observed damage collected during post-earthquake inspections through existing conversion rules, considering damage to vertical structures and infills/partitions. The maximum damage level observed on vertical structures and infills/partitions is then associated to the whole building. Fragility curves for two vulnerability classes, C2 and D, further subdivided into three classes of building height, are obtained from those derived for specific structural typologies (identified based on building height and type of design), using their frequency of occurrence at national level as weights.
A damage scenario based on observational data collected in L’Aquila Municipality after the 6th April 2009 earthquake is compared with a predicted damage scenario derived from the application of a simplified analytical method for seismic vulnerability assessment of Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings at large scale. The observational damage scenario is derived from a database of 131 RC buildings located in the Municipality of L’Aquila, which after the 2009 earthquake were subjected to post-earthquake usability assessment procedure. The simplified analytical approach adopted is based on the Capacity Spectrum Method to evaluate seismic capacity at different Damage States (DSs) based on the displacement capacity of structural and non-structural elements. DSs and the corresponding displacement capacity are defined through the interpretation of the observational-based DSs provided by the European Macroseismic Scale EMS-98. Data predicted by the adopted methodology are in good agreement with the observed damage distribution. The observed damage scenario is also compared with predicted scenarios derived from other methodologies from literature
The main features of the Reinforced Concrete (RC) building stock that was struck by the Emilia 2012 earthquake and damage observed after the event are analyzed. Building stock characteristics and historical seismic classification are employed for the definition of two benchmark structures, representative of the whole building stock. Seismic capacity of the two structures, at different damage states, is assessed through static push-over analyses, within the N2 spectral assessment framework. Infill panels' contribution in terms of strength and stiffness is explicitly taken into account in the analytical model. Damage States are defined according to a mechanical interpretation of EMS-98 scale. Fragility functions at each Damage State are obtained through the application of a Response Surface Method. Finally large-scale damage scenarios are obtained crossing the georeferenced census data regarding the characteristics of the Emilia RC building stock and starting from the seismic input provided by the shake map of the event. The scenarios seem to be in reasonable agreement with the observed damage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.