Seismic fragility assessment of RC frame structure designed according to modern Chinese code for seismic design of buildings

Following several damaging earthquakes in China, research has been devoted to find the causes of the collapse of reinforced concrete (RC) building sand studying the vulnerability of existing buildings. The Chinese Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (CCSDB) has evolved over time, however, there is still reported earthquake induced damage of newly designed RC buildings. Thus, to investigate modern Chinese seismic design code, three low-, mid- and high-rise RC frames were designed according to the 2010 CCSDB and the corresponding vulnerability curves were derived by computing a probabilistic seismic demand model (PSDM).The PSDM was computed by carrying out nonlinear time history analysis using thirty ground motions obtained from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. Finally, the PSDM was used to generate fragility curves for immediate occupancy, significant damage, and collapse prevention damage levels. Results of the vulnerability assessment indicate that the seismic demands on the three different frames designed according to the 2010 CCSDB meet the seismic requirements and are almost in the same safety level.