Seismic Vulnerability Assessment: Reinforced Concrete Structures

摘要: Seismic vulnerability can be defined as the degree of loss to a given element at risk (eg, buildings) resulting from the occurrence of an earthquake event (Coburn and Spence 2002). The development of methodologies for seismic vulnerability assessment is an essential tool for seismic risk management and for prioritizing pre-earthquake strengthening of the built environment. Seismic risk can be approached through different methodologies. Most of them aim to deconstruct the problem into the typical elements defining any kind of risk:(i) hazard,(ii) vulnerability, and (iii) exposure, and they are based on the total probability theorem.Available seismic vulnerability methods, ie, empirical, analytical, or hybrid (eg, Calvi et al. 2006), developed in the last 30 years, differ because of the nature of tools and data employed. In the following only analytical approach to seismic vulnerability is considered, given the significance that such approach had in the last years. Analytical vulnerability methods stand at the basis of current worldwide codes and guidelines for seismic design and assessment of structures. Therefore, next-generation codes (eg, FEMA P-58-1 2012) are proceeding toward an explicit quantification of seismic risk through the Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) framework. Section “Performance Earthquake Engineering Framework” of this entry describes how in PBEE seismic risk assessment is deconstructed through the total probability theorem. PBEE’s deconstruction of seismic risk in hazard, structural, damage, and loss analysis emphasizes how structural and damage analyses are strictly related to vulnerability assessment in …