Forced vibration tests were conducted on two different buildings in Ankara, Turkey: The first building was the Structural Mechanics New Laboratory Building of Civil Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University (METU), a two-story prefabricated reinforced concrete (RC) building. The objective in testing this building is to determine not only the dynamic properties... Read More

Reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures customarily have been designed in regions of low-to-moderate seismicity with little or no consideration of their seismic resistance. The move toward performance-based seismic engineering requires accurate reliability-based structural analysis models of gravity load designed (GLD) RC frames for predicting their behavior under seismic effects... Read More

The infrequent nature of earthquakes in the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), and the fact that none with intensity comparable to the New Madrid sequence of 1811–12 has occurred in the past century, have caused the earthquake hazard in the CEUS to be neglected until quite recently. The performance of reinforced concrete (RC) frames in the CEUS may be deficient if they are subjected to earthquakes that are believed to be plausible in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). This study presents a set of probability-based tools for seismic vulnerability and risk assessment of such gravity load designed (GLD) RC frames, and uses these tools to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of RC frames that are representative of the building inventory in Memphis, TN — the largest population center close to the NMSZ. This evaluation indicates that traditional GLD RC frames have a substantial probability of suffering life-threatening damage or collapse... Read More

Seismic fragilities are essential to earthquake loss estimation and performance-based earthquake engineering in regions of high seismicity. Construction practices for frames in regions of moderate seismicity are quite different, and such frames have received less attention in the literature. Fragilities for performance levels identified in recent seismic regulations are developed herein for reinforced concrete frames designed for gravity load in low-seismic regions using probabilistic nonlinear finite element analysis. An examination of the contribution of uncertainties in material and structural parameters reveals that structural damping, concrete strength, and cracking strain in beam-column joints have the greatest impact on the fragilities of such frames. However, fragilities that incorporate... Read More