Seismic Retrofit by Connecting to Adjacent Building

Abstract eng:
Feasibility of retrofitting seismically vulnerable buildings, designed in accordance with out-dated building codes, was studied by externally inter-connecting to an adjacent building, constructed in accordance with present building codes, at floor levels with connecting elements at floor levels, so that the use or the occupancy will not be interrupted during the work. The reliability of this retrofit method was examined by nonlinear earthquake response analysis of multi-story frame buildings. The lateral resistance and deformation relation of columns was selected on the basis of experimental data, in which shear strength, loss of gravity load carrying capacity and loss of lateral load resistance were recognized. An old five-story building, subjected to a series of code level earthquake motions, is shown to collapse at a specific story. Therefore, the five-story seismically vulnerable building is connected to a new ten-story building, designed to develop the weak-beam strong-column performance, at floor levels by connecting elements. It is shown that the collapse of the vulnerable building can be prevented by the connection, although significant damage developed in the five-story building and the deformation of the ten-story building slightly increased.

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