Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings Using Hierarchical Fuzzy Rule Base Modeling

Abstract

A reliable building vulnerability assessment is required for developing a risk-based assessment and retrofit prioritization. Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu (2008) proposed a simple building vulnerability module where the building performance modifiers are in congruence with FEMA 154. This paper is an extension of the building vulnerability assessment that include detailed performance modifier in congruence with FEMA 310 that is represented in a heuristic based hierarchical structure. Some of the input parameters are obtained through a walk down survey and are subject to vagueness uncertainty that is modelled through fuzzy set theory. A knowledge base fuzzy rule base modeling is developed and illustrated for reinforced concrete buildings damaged in the 1 May 2003 Bingöl, Turkey earthquake.

Configuration optimization of dampers for adjacent buildings under seismic excitations

“…During an earthquake such adjacent buildings are prone to pounding. The damage due to pounding during earthquakes is highly destructive and particularly frequent in dense urban centres (Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu 2010). For example, severe damage was observed in the Mexico City earthquake (1985), the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989), the Kobe earthquake (1994) and the recent New Zealand earthquake (2011).…”

Development of the CanRisk earthquake injury model

“…CanRisk has a modular architecture and can therefore incorporate any number of modules to evaluate the risk of various aspects to the built environment. It currently includes modules to evaluate the earthquake resistance of reinforced concrete buildings (Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu 2010), unreinforced masonry buildings (Elsabbagh 2013), timber-frame buildings (Komsari 2014), steel buildings (Saatcioglu personal communication 2014), and the injury module described herein. CanRisk utilizes detailed structural parameters in its evaluation of building performance which leads to a more accurate estimation of damageability (degree of damage to a building; a value between 0 and 1).…”

Effect of Topology Irregularities and Construction Quality on Life-Cycle Cost of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

“…The main causes of damage to building structures can be grouped into two categories; factors associated with the topology of the structure (e.g., Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu, 2008;Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu, 2010) (e.g., vertical irregularities such as soft story and weak story, etc., and plan irregularities); and factors contributing to reduction in ductility and energy absorption capacity (e.g., Erberik et al, 2012;Sánchez-Silva et al, 2009;Kwon and Elnashai, 2006;Saatcioglu and Humar, 2003) (e.g., construction quality, year of construction, lack of seismic detailing, structural degradation). From various earthquakes reconnaissance reports, for example, soft story and poor material properties are recurrently reported cause of damages [Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu, 2008;Sánchez-Silva and García, 2001].…”