INFLUENCE FACTORS FOR THE SIMPLIFIED ASSESSMENT OF MAXIMUM LATERAL SEISMIC DEFORMATIONS IN ITALIAN MULTISTOREY RC BUILDINGS

Abstract eng:
In the aftermath of low-to-moderate earthquakes, simplified methods allowing fast estimate of maximum lateral deformations experienced in multistory building are particularly useful when estimating nonstructural damage on a large building inventory. In particular, Miranda [1] introduced a simplified method that adopts an equivalent continuum elastic structure to estimate both maximum roof displacement and maximum interstorey drift ratio for a given response spectrum. Based on a closed-form solution, this method was further extended [2] to account for higher vibration modes, different distributions of lateral forces and non-uniform stiffness along the height. However, the method assumes that building properties will continuously vary along the height, assumption that is not generally valid for the Italian building stock due to the presence of knee beams and infill panels. This paper investigates on the effect of variation of infill properties on the elastic lateral response of infilled RC buildings, assessing the influence of different characteristics, such as geometric and material properties or the opening percentage, on IDRmax. Plane Multi-degree-of-freedom elastic models including explicit modeling of infill panels are adopted and the effect of local discontinuities is included, while linear time-history analyses are performed considering several input ground motions. The effect on the interstorey drift ratio of different opening percentages and infill arrangements, both at the same storey and along the height, are considered to account for discontinuities caused by the presence of infills. Further, the influence of different types and thicknesses of the infill panels, level connection to the surrounding frame is analyzed.

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