Comparison of North American Seismic Screening Methods Applied to School Buildings

Abstract

An ongoing project at McGill University is aimed at developing an adapted seismic screening method for schools in the province of Québec, Canada. As part of this project the "FEMA154 Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazard" and the "NRC92 Manual for Screening of Buildings for Seismic Investigation" were used to assess 102 school buildings located in the city of Montréal. Results for both methods are in reasonable agreement, with 65% of the buildings requiring a detailed evaluation according to FEMA154 and 50% according to NRC92. Findings highlighted the particular characteristics of educational facilities: they are low rise buildings with high incidence of structural irregularities. Accounting for them in the screening phase is essential, and is better achieved by NRC92. However, this method is largely based on expert opinion, which makes it difficult to update, while FEMA154 uses a rational methodology for calculating vulnerability scores based on the capacity spectrum approach. The FEMA154 analytical procedure allows updating and adapting the method to its use outside its intended scope.