Assessment of an existing RC building before and after strengthening using nonlinear static procedure and incremental dynamic analysis

Inadequate attention during design and construction of some of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Cyprus has raised questions about the performance level of these existing buildings under future earthquakes. This study aimed to assess the seismic structural response of a four story existing RC building. For this purpose, first, the weak structural elements (e.g. the not safety column-beam joints and weak columns) were detected using linear static procedure (LSP) analyses on the basis of Turkish earthquake code. Then, two different strengthening methods were examined. In the first method which is common in Cyprus, the existing building was strengthened based on LSP, using column jacketing to satisfy seismic code requirements to remove the weak elements. The second strengthening method was carried out using nonlinear static procedures (NSP) to achieve the basic safety objective (BSO) performance level described in FEMA 356. For existing and both strengthened structures, pushover curves were obtained and following FEMA 356, performance points were calculated and compared. The seismic responses of existing and strengthened buildings were also assessed using incremental dynamic analyses (IDA). Nonlinear dynamic time history analyses have been performed by using SDOF models of these buildings under action of different scales of 20 ground motion records. Then IDA curves for each earthquake have been constructed. Limit - states at each performance level have been defined and summarizing the multi - record IDA curves, 16%, 50% and 84% fractile curves were obtained. Since selected structure represents common existing buildings in Cyprus, probabilistic structural damage estimation fragility curves were also obtained in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) for each considered performance level. Results showed that the strengthening method based on the NSP to satisfy the BSO requirements is much more effective than the one based on the LSP to improve the building performance and to reduce the probability of exceeding of limit states 10, LS and CP at any seismic zone.