Performance-based Post-earthquake Decision-making for Instrumented Buildings

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for decisionmaking regarding post-earthquake assessment of instrumented buildings in a manner consistent with performancebased design criteria. This framework is achieved by simultaneously combining and advancing existing knowledge from seismic structural health monitoring and performance-based earthquake engineering paradigms and consists of 1) optimal sensor placement, 2) dynamic response reconstruction, 3) damage estimation, and 4) performance-assessment and decision-making. In particular, the main objective is to reconstruct interstory drifts with a probabilistic measure of exceeding performance-based acceptance limits and determining the post-earthquake re-occupancy classification of the instrumented building of interest. Since the proposed framework is probabilistic, the outcome can be used to obtain the probability of losses based on the defined decision variables and be integrated into a risk-based decision-making process by city officials, building owners, and emergency managers. The framework is illustrated using data from the Van Nuys hotel testbed, a seven story reinforced concrete building instrumented by the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (Station 24386).