Extending displacement-based earthquake loss assessment (DBELA) for the computation of fragility curves

This paper presents a new procedure to derive fragility functions for populations of buildings that relies on the displacement-based earthquake loss assessment (DBELA) methodology. In the method proposed herein, thousands of synthetic buildings have been produced considering the probabilistic distribution describing the variability in geometrical and material properties. Then, their nonlinear capacity has been estimated using the DBELA method and their response against a large set of ground motion records has been estimated. Global limit states are used to estimate the distribution of buildings in each damage state for different levels of ground motion, and a regression algorithm is applied to derive fragility functions for each limit state. The proposed methodology is demonstrated for the case of ductile and non-ductile Turkish reinforced concrete frames with masonry infills

Seismic Assessment of Electrical Equipment in Power Substations: A Case Study for Circuit Breakers

Electric power is essential in post-earthquake periods for the continuous functionality of disaster management and emergency services. In addition, interruption of electric power can cause significant economic losses due to downtime of critical facilities. Therefore, it is very important to maintain seismic safety of electric power systems and components. There are existing seismic regulations and standards regarding electric power systems, especially in the United States of America (USA) and Europe. A similar regulation has been prepared recently in Türkiye, which is a country in a seismically active region. This study focuses on the current state of practice regarding the seismic assessment of electrical equipment in power stations and implementation of the regulations on seismic qualification of these systems. Among many electrical equipment, circuit breakers have been selected for case study. The seismic assessment of the selected high voltage equipment has been performed according to the new regulation under the seismic hazard specifically defined for Türkiye. The case study experiment presents the new methodology in evaluating and classifying the seismic response of high voltage electrical equipment and provides insight to the expected behaviour of circuit breakers under earthquake induced action

Direct damage controlled seismic design of plane steel degrading frames

A new method for seismic design of plane steel moment resisting framed structures is developed. This method is able to control damage at all levels of performance in a direct manner. More specifically, the method: (a) can determine damage in any member or the whole of a designed structure under any given seismic load, (b) can dimension a structure for a given seismic load and desired level of damage and (c) can determine the maximum seismic load a designed structure can sustain in order to exhibit a desired level of damage. In order to accomplish these things, an appropriate seismic damage index is used that takes into account the interaction between axial force and bending moment at a section, strength and stiffness degradation as well as low cycle fatigue. Then, damage scales are constructed on the basis of extensive parametric studies involving a large number of frames exhibiting cyclic strength and stiffness degradation and a large number of seismic motions and using the above damage index for damage determination. Some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the proposed method and demonstrate its advantages against other methods of seismic design. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Fragility analysis of wide-beam infill-joist block RC frames

Purpose: The purpose of the presented study is to develop fragility curves for the wide-beam infill-joist block reinforced concrete structures. Theory and Methods: Nonlinear time history analyses are performed for the set of selected ground motions. The performance levels are identified through pushover analysis and fragility curves are produced for ground motion parameters. Results: Fragility curves obtained for the wide-beam RC frames presents a different characteristic than the curves obtained for the conventional frames. Conclusion: Results show that wide-beam RC frame buildings are seismically more vulnerable than the conventional deep beam RC frame buildings based on structural models with similar properties. The possible reason seems to be low lateral stiffness of wide-beam frames that causes large lateral drift demands and therefore severe damage at the wide-beam column connections

Seismic Vulnerability of Flat-Slab Structures

The study has three main objectives. The first objective is to investigate the fragility of flat-slab reinforced concrete systems. Developing the fragility information of flat-slab construction will be a novel achievement since the issue has not been the concern of any research in the literature. The second objective is to assess HAZUS as an open-source, nationally accepted earthquake loss estimation software environment. It is important to understand the potentials and the limitations of the methodology, the relationship between the hazard, damage and the loss modules, and the plausibility of the results before using it for the purposes of hazard mitigation, preparedness or recovery. The last objective is to implement the fragility information obtained for the flat-slab structural system into HAZUS. The methodology involves many built-in specific building types, but does not include flat-slab structures. Hence it will be extra achievement to develop HAZUScompatible fragility curves to be used within the methodology.National Science Foundation EEC-970178

Estimation of Potential Seismic Damage in Urban Areas

Large earthquakes are known to have significant damage potential in urban regions. Recently all over the world, efforts are made toward reduction of future probable damages. The first step in damage mitigation is the estimation of expected damage levels in buildings that are subjected to earthquakes with different intensities. Due to the inherent uncertainties involved in the analyses, estimation of seismic damage rates must be handled within a probabilistic framework. To assess the damage rates under different shaking levels, “seismic damage” needs to be quantified and measured in a standard manner. The most common approach to quantify seismic damage rates is to perform fragility analyses. Fragility is defined as the probability of a system reaching a limit state as a function of seismic intensity levels..

Seismic Risk Assessment of Masonry Buildings in Istanbul for Effective Risk Mitigation

Unreinforced and non-engineered masonry buildings are highly vulnerable to seismic hazard and constitute a significant percentage of earthquake losses, including both casualties and economic losses. This study presents an engineering application on seismic safety assessment of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in Istanbul, Turkey, a metropolitan city under very high seismic risk. Nearly 20,000 masonry buildings were examined through a two-stage assessment procedure in order to identify the addresses of those buildings which are under high seismic risk. Furthermore, the obtained database can be employed in the preparation of an earthquake mitigation strategy for the expected major earthquake in Istanbul. In the first-stage evaluation, buildings are examined visually from the street by considering their basic structural parameters and they are ranked within a priority list in terms of the calculated seismic risk. Next, the buildings identified with higher risk are evaluated in the second stage by using a more detailed procedure. The developed procedure is both an optimal and a practical tool in the seismic risk assessment of large masonry building stocks in a short period of time with limited resources. [DOI: 10.1193/1.3464344