Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings Affected by the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake

Brzev, Svetlana; Pandey, Bishnu; Maharjan, Dev Kumar; Ventura, Carlos E.

doi:10.1193/120116eqs218m

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…instead having large lateral tie spacing and few longitudinal bars). The masonry walls are either added as infill, after the construction of the frame, or in more of a confined masonry modality, in which walls are built first (Brzev et al, 2017). When built as confined masonry, the wall panel and frame act as a single unit that can effectively resist lateral loads.…”

Section: Informally Constructed Housing In Puerto Ricomentioning

confidence: 99%

Seismic safety of informally constructed reinforced concrete houses in Puerto Rico

et al. 2022

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More than 1.6 billion people worldwide live in informally constructed houses, many of which are reinforced with concrete. Patterns of past earthquake damage suggest that these homes have significant seismic vulnerabilities, endangering their occupants. The characteristics of these houses vary widely with local building practices. In addition, these vulnerabilities are potentially exacerbated by incremental construction practices and building practices that address wind/flood risk in multi-hazard environments. Yet, despite the ubiquity of this type of construction, there have not been efforts to systematically assess the seismic risks to support risk-reducing design and construction strategies. In this study, we developed a method to assess the seismic collapse capacity of informally constructed housing that accounts for local building practices and materials, quantifying the effect of building characteristics on collapse risk. We exercise the method to assess seismic performance of housing in the US. Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, which has high seismic hazard and experiences frequent hurricanes. This analysis showed that heavy construction, often due to the addition of a second story, and the presence of an open ground story leads to a high collapse risk. Severely corroded steel bars could also worsen performance. Although houses with infill performed better than those with an open ground story, confined masonry construction techniques produced a major reduction in collapse risk when compared to infilled or open-frame construction. Infill construction with partial height walls performed very poorly. Well-built reinforced concrete column jackets and the addition of infill in open first-story bays can reduce the greater risks of open-ground-story houses. These findings, which are quantified in the results portion of this article, are intended to support the development of design and construction recommendations for safer housing.

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Section: Informally Constructed Housing In Puerto Ricomentioning

confidence: 99%

Seismic safety of informally constructed reinforced concrete houses in Puerto Rico

et al. 2022

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“…If the frame columns were not designed for these additional loads from the in ll wall, they tend to fail during strong earthquakes (Figure 2). A detailed eld survey performed after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake (Brzev et al 2017) revealed that this type of shear failure of the RC columns is devastating. It leads to a loss of the column's gravity loadcarrying capacity and a progressive collapse of the structure, as shown in Figure 3.…”

Section: Frame Failures During Earthquakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Platform Simulation of Infilled Shear-Critical Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected to Earthquake Excitations

Huang

Brodsky

2021

Preprint

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This paper proposes a multi-platform simulation method for seismic performance assessment of masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frames, especially for those who tend to fail in shear during an earthquake due to inadequate reinforcing details. The method is based on a micro-macro modeling approach where a detailed finite element (FE) model of the RC frame is incorporated with a strut model of the infill wall. It takes advantage of the strut model in terms of computational efficiency and the FE model based on the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT) to capture the nonlinear behaviour of the RC frame with explicit modeling of the beam-column joint failure and shear failure of the frame. The proposed method is validated against previously tested frames subjected to lateral loads, and its advantages over the conventional struct models are demonstrated through both quasi-static and dynamic analyses.

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“…Two papers in the special issue address RC infill frame damage. Brzev et al (2017) focus on low-rise RC infill frame buildings. Ninety-eight infill buildings from three areas of heavy damage were surveyed for damage and geometry.…”

Section: Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake and the Earthquake Spectra Special Issue

et al. 2017

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On 25 April 2015, a Mw7.8 earthquake struck near Gorka, Nepal. The earth-quake and its aftershocks caused over 8,790 deaths and 22,300 injuries; a half a million homes were destroyed; and hundreds of historical and cultural monuments were destroyed or extensively damaged ( NPC 2015 ). Triggered landslides blocked access to road networks, and other lifelines were significantly impacted. Damage occurred in the capital of Kathmandu and the surrounding valley basin, but the most heavily affected areas were in more rural regions of central Nepal where losses to some towns were severe. Recovery has been slow, but progress is being made in rebuilding and repairing lost and damaged buildings and infrastructure. This Earthquake Spectra special issue provides a compendium of research papers on the Gorkha earthquake. They are organized into five topics: (1) seismology, ground motion, and geotechnical issues; (2) lifelines; (3) buildings; (4) cultural heritage structures; and (5) social science and public policy related topics. This overview summarizes key aspects of the earthquake and highlights findings from the special issue papers.

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Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings Affected by the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake

Cited by 18 publications

References 9 publications

Seismic safety of informally constructed reinforced concrete houses in Puerto Rico

Seismic safety of informally constructed reinforced concrete houses in Puerto Rico

Multi-Platform Simulation of Infilled Shear-Critical Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected to Earthquake Excitations

Overview of the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake and the Earthquake Spectra Special Issue

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