Development of a Simplified Displacement-Based Procedure for the Seismic Assessment of Rc Wall Buildings

Abstract

In regions of low or moderate seismicity there may be cases in which a rapid, simplified and conservative seismic assessment may be sufficient to demonstrate that a building satisfies certain seismic risk requirements. In recognition of this, a simplified displacementbased seismic assessment procedure, initially formulated for RC frame structures, is formulated to permit the rapid seismic assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) wall buildings. The key aspect of the procedure is the simplified evaluation of the displacement demand as the maximum spectral displacement across all periods. The displacement capacity, shear capacity and shear demand are also estimated simply, using newly developed equations that are a function of wall geometry and material properties. By adopting such formulations for the displacement and shear, the need to evaluate the period of vibration, stiffness and flexural strength of the walls is eliminated. The proposed approach is evaluated through the design and assessment of several case study buildings. Although the procedure is likely to be conservative in most cases, it is foreseen that it would be used in an initial screening process whereby a pass would require no further assessment and a fail would trigger a more detailed investigation.

A New Method to Assess the Seismic Vulnerability of Existing Wood Frame Buildings

“…Considering literature, instead, very few works deal with the direct displacement-based assessment (DDBA) procedure. The state-of-the-art of DDBA method was provided in the book by Priestley et al [2], while some considerations on the method can be seen in Sullivan and Calvi [5] and in Welch et al [6], which we recommend. We show the standard DDBA procedure pioneered by Priestley [7] as follows.…”

“…A short step-by-step chart of this method can be seen in Fig. 1, modified from a work presented by Sullivan and Calvi [5] for reinforced concrete frame structures.…”

“…Overview of the direct displacement-based assessment (DDBA) approach: (a) expected inelastic mechanism at peak response and matching displacement shape, (b) equivalent SDOF representation, (c) assessment of Force-Displacement response and matching dissipation capacity, and (d) estimation of the seismic intensity that can be resisted based on earthquake hazard (modified from Sullivan and Calvi [5]).…”

“…In order to establish the displacement profile at peak Advanced Materials Research Vol. 778 response, as well as the probable storey shear distribution, the concept of sway-demand index was introduced by Sullivan and Calvi [5]. This parameter has been developed firstly to assess reinforced concrete frame structures.…”

Developing Storey Loss Functions for Evaluation of Seismic Risk in Italian Residential Building Typologies

“…DBELA enabled the loss assessment of large building stocks, due to its simplified assumptions that cover different structural typologies, rendering it useful mainly at regional/national scale. Subsequently, Ramirez and Miranda [3], with a view to derive a widespread code-based procedure for practitioners, developed the storey loss functions (SLFs) approach, reducing the probabilistic complexity and computational effort of the well-known PEER-PBEE methodology [4]. The SLF approach is based on engineering demand parameter versus decision variable (EDP-DV) functions, directly relating the EDPs to economic losses; these functions are generally specific for every storey level and therefore termed storey loss functions.…”