Seismic Collapse Analysis of Wooden Houses in Japan Using Nonlinear Rigid Body-Spring Method

Abstract eng:
In Japan, the majority of modern residential buildings are wood-framed construction and the past few decades revealed the vulnerability of these structures to strong earthquakes. The Kobe earthquake in 1995 caused tremendous loss of lives resulting from the collapse and damage of wooden houses. This disaster motivated many researchers to study the mechanisms of collapse of engineering structures in order to prevent further loss of lives in the future. In this paper, an innovative methodology in simulating the dynamic response of wood-framed residential buildings, for purposes of seismic performance assessment and retrofitting, is presented. The proposed method, which can simulate inelastic behavior of structures, is capable of showing realistic progressive collapse mechanisms and accurate seismic response of structures. The sequence of analyses and results in the form of computer animations provide real-time assessment of structural integrity and a way to identify the weak points of a structure. Applications to real wood-framed residential buildings were used to show the effectiveness of the methodology in seismic performance assessment and in retrofitting.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket