09-10-2013, 02:05 PM
Seismic Evaluation of Low Rise RC Framed Building Designed According to Venezuelan Codes
Author: Juan Carlos Vielma, Alex H. Barbat, Ronald Ugel and Reyes Indira Herrera | Size: 1.7 MB | Format: PDF | Quality: Unspecified | pages: 18
Along its history, Venezuela has been severely affected by destructive earthquakes [1].
Approximately 80% of the population lives in seismically active areas, where have occurred
destructive earthquakes even in recent times [2]; The seismic hazard, inadequate design and
construction of buildings as well as the damage occurred from previous earthquakes, dem‐
onstrate a high vulnerability in existing buildings. Then it is essential to continuously make
progress and research in the field of earthquake engineering and upgrade the seismic design
codes. Seismic upgrade requires the evaluation or predictions of the expected damage to
structures at the time of an earthquake of a certain severity occur. From this prediction it can
be defined solutions for the reduction of structural vulnerability [3].
The damage occurred in buildings after an earthquake indicates the need for reliable meth‐
odologies for the evaluation of seismic behavior of the existing buildings. According to current
technical and scientific advances, seismic evaluation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures can
be done by two different approaches: empirical methods and mechanical methods [4]. The
current tendency of earthquake engineering in the evaluation of structural behavior is the
application of simplified mechanical methods based on performance, involving the capacity
spectrum [5], because there are developed refined models and detailed analysis.
This study used a mechanical method that involves non-linear analysis with deterministic and
probabilistic approaches, as well as procedures of analysis based on Limits States defined by
displacements [6], in order to evaluate the behavior of a low rise RC building with plan
irregularity, designed according to Venezuelan codes [7]-[9] and subjected to seismic action
effect. Through the use of mathematical models and computational tools, seismic behavior of
the building is obtained in a suitable way. Among these tools any procedure was chosen:
Code:
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