Title: New factors for the seismic vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete buildings

Authors: Marius Mosoarca; Anthimos Anastasiadis; Antonio Formisano

Addresses: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Politehnica University Timisoara, 2A Traian Lalescu Street, Timisoara, Romania ' ASA Design Office, 10 Taskou Papageorgiou Street, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Structural Engineering and Architecture, Universita di Napoli 'Federico II', 80 Piazzale Tecchio Street, Naples, Italy

Abstract: Strong earthquakes recorded worldwide have indicated less known failure modes of reinforced concrete structures, produced by new factors which should be accounted in future seismic evaluation methods of buildings. These new factors for the vulnerability assessment of buildings have been highlighted by recent seismic recordings. Equipment placed on various construction elements provided new information on the characteristics of the seismic waves, the distribution of seismic waves in the building and the mode in which buildings interact with other neighbouring buildings, the variation of the seismic acceleration's vertical components, and the influence of the foundation ground on the failure mechanisms. In this article, there are presented these new factors and the unknown brittle failure modes developed by reinforced concrete buildings subjected to seismic action between 2009 and 2011. These presented factors should be introduced in the near future in the seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings as well as in the seismic design codes.

Keywords: seismic vulnerability assessment; reinforced concrete buildings; failure mechanisms; reinforced concrete structures; earthquakes; seismic waves; seismic recordings; building interactions; seismic acceleration; brittle failure modes; seismic design codes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMSS.2016.078708

International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, 2016 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.222 - 232

Received: 17 Nov 2015
Accepted: 17 Nov 2015
Published online: 01 Sep 2016 *

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