Probabilistic Seismic Vulnerability assessment of RC Frame Structures Retrofitted with Steel Jacketing

A majority of Iranian residential buildings have RC frame structures with intermediate ductility. Recent earthquakes have revealed major seismic deficiencies in these buildings, some of which led to catastrophic collapses and significant death tolls. Causes for the unsatisfactory performance include the absence of special seismic detailing of key structural elements, inadequate material and construction quality. Based on an extensive field investigation done by the authors on the short, mid-rise and high-rise Northern Iranian as-built structures having RC frames, in this study, reduced strength of concrete and also insufficient overlap length of column’s longitudinal bars are considered as common structural deficiencies and then by considering probable uncertainties such as material and earthquake uncertainty, the seismic performance of considered buildings are developed via fragility curves based on probabilistic method. For generation of seismic fragility curves for as built and also retrofitted models, 3 dimensional analytical models analyzed based on Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) in OpenSEES. The demand statistics in terms of maximum inter–story drift ratio are obtained for 20 sets of ground motion records and the capacity is determined according to the HAZUS-MH limit states and finally the corresponding fragility curves for four damage states are developed for as built and retrofitted models. The results represent the effect of the story numbers, structural deficiency and implemented retrofit strategy on the seismic vulnerability of this subclass of structures.