Current Issue

EVALUATING THE SEISMIC REINFORCEMENT OF EXISTING SCHOOL BUILDINGS USING SEISMIC CONDITIONS

Tse-Shan Hsu

President, Institute of Mitigation for Earthquake Shear Banding Disasters

Professor, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Zong-Lin Wu, Yu-Chien Wu

Directors, Institute of Mitigation for Earthquake Shear Banding Disasters

Ching-Chang Lin, Da-Jie Lin, Tsai-Fu Chuang

Associate Professors, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstract

This paper examines the functionality and effectiveness of structural seismic reinforcement carried out in Taiwanese school buildings and public markets by examining the seismic behavior of these buildings when affected by shear banding. The following four conclusions are drawn: (1) School buildings and public markets located in non-shear banding areas are considered to be earthquake-resistant buildings because they meet the conditions that the buildings are aseismic. (2) All buildings and structural analytical models on which lateral pushover tests were conducted and which were subsequently used for the evaluation of the seismic reinforcement of school buildings and public markets, were deemed to be earthquake-resistant buildings because the bottom ends of their building columns maintained the horizontal and continuous conditions set in the original design. (3) Earthquake-resistant buildings do not need structural earthquake-resistant reinforcement, and effective structural earthquake-resistant reinforcement changes a building that is not earthquake-resistant to one that is earthquake-resistant. (4) The structural seismic reinforcement of school buildings and public markets in Taiwan only improves resistance of the pillars of these already earthquake-resistant buildings against ground vibration, so the necessity and effectiveness of this procedure are limited. Based on the above conclusions, it is suggested that the effect of shear banding should be recognized and buildings subject to shear banding should be identified and targeted for earthquake reinforcement.

Keywords: buildings, seismic reinforcement, pushover, shear banding, ground vibration.