Seismic Fragility of Wide-Beam Infill-Joist Block Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings

Abstract eng:
Wide-beam infill-joist block (WBIJB) reinforced concrete (RC) frame is a popular construction technique in Turkey and the Mediterranean basin. Even though there were previous observations and considerations about the problematic seismic behavior of the WBIJB frames, the behavior was concealed behind the general weaknesses of the RC frames. Currently WBIJB RC frames are not considered as a separate sub-class of RC frame systems during regional damage and loss estimation studies. However, the recent earthquakes shed a light on the possible inferior behavior of this class of building structures. The main difference of the WBIJB frames from conventional moment resisting frames is the presence of wideshallow beams as an architectural preference. Due to shallow beams, the lateral stiffness of these systems decrease which resulted an increase in the period of the buildings. Hence, increased earthquake drift demands resulted. The main goal of the presented study is to develop the fragility curves for this specific class of RC frame buildings, which constitute a significant portion of the existing building stock in Turkey. The resulting fragility information could be employed in future regional loss estimation studies. For this purpose, a generic two dimensional frame is designed and modeled by considering the properties of the existing WBIJB frame buildings, the current seismic regulations and the construction practice in Turkey. Pushover and nonlinear time history analyses are conducted in order to quantify seismic demand and capacity. Then this information is used to calculate the probabilities of exceeding the predefined limit states as a function of seismic ground motion intensity parameters. In the last part of the study, the estimated fragility curves are compared with the available fragility curves of similar construction types.

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