Preliminary Seismic Assessment of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Taiwan

Abstract eng:
An effective preliminary seismic assessment can provide a pre-screening of seismic capacity for a huge number of low-rise reinforced concrete (RC) buildings (e.g., school buildings and street houses) in Taiwan. The buildings that are found to have insufficient seismic capacity must then be subjected to detailed evaluation to conform to the required seismic capacity. The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering has developed a preliminary seismic assessment method using a detailed evaluation of a database of school buildings in Taiwan. From statistical regression results, the performance ground acceleration of each school building is found to be related to the total floor area, column section area, and wall section area of the school building. In other words, the performance ground acceleration of a low-rise RC building can be rapidly evaluated using the ratio of column section area to floor area of the building. The preliminary seismic assessment method is verified using another database of earthquake reconnaissance. The buildings with moderate or severe seismic damage were found to have concerns regarding their seismic capacity. Meanwhile, for buildings with slight seismic damage, the evaluation reveals only minor concerns over their seismic capacity. Consequently, the preliminary assessment method is found to be conservative and consistent with the trend of damage levels of existing low-rise RC buildings.

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