Seismic Damage Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

Abstract

A method for evaluating structural damage of reinforced concrete buildings under random earthquake excitations is proposed. Extensive damage analysis of SDF systems and typical MDF reinforced concrete buildings were performed. On the basis of these results, a simple relationship between the destructiveness of the ground motions, expressed in terms of the “characteristic intensity,” and the structural damage, expressed in terms of the “damage index,” is established. Reinforced concrete buildings that were damaged during past earthquakes were used to calibrate the proposed damage measure; on this basis, practical limits of structural damage are defined.