Seismic Vulnerability in Educational Buildings. Proposal for Adaptation of the Italian Method.

Abstract eng:
The capital of Mendoza and the surrounding departments are located in the area of the most seismic vulnerability in Argentina. In spite of having suffered destructive earthquakes, the reconstruction was made in the same affected area of the historical earthquake of 1861, or very near, as well as were the educational buildings, having nowadays more than 500 buildings for that purpose. Many of them are from times when no seismic resistance regulations were required. And other ones have been built under regulations that are different from the current ones. The new regulations have achieved a great advance in the structural and not structural design of the buildings, and this is a tool which gives us a starting point to value what has been done in the constructions made in different stages of our history. The lack of structural adaptation of these buildings can generate their collapse and consequently the loss of their occupant’s lives, causing a great social and economic impact in the population. This makes us think about the way we will adjust those structures to avoid the possible disasters that a big earthquake could cause. The correct assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the buildings facilitate the tools to design an optimal structural reinforcement. The aim of the job is to propose a simple and dynamic methodology of the analysis of the security in front of this type of event in order to study the educational buildings. It is made an adaptation of the Italian Method of seismic vulnerability, destined for being applied specifically to those buildings. They are evaluated not only when they have structures of only one type, walls of enchained masonry or structures of reinforced concrete, but also when there is a combination or interrelation between them. It is also added in the analysis, the possibility of the nonexistence of a rigid diaphragm to distribute the seismic action in the seismic resistant vertical structural systems The proposal methodology has qualitative characteristics of seismic vulnerability analysis and the results which were found have a concordance with other proposal methods by other professionals. The reached conclusion is to work in a first instance with qualitative methods, in order to apply later quantitative methods, and consequently, if necessary, do the correspondent structural adjustments, so that this reduces the seismic risk at short term, providing more security to all the population.

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