The performance based approach in seismic rehabilitation of buildings

Abstract

During the strong earthquakes which occurred near large metropolitan areas in the 1990’s, few engineered structures collapsed or led to fatalities, but many structures suffered a considerable degree of damage that was considered unacceptable. This led to the conclusion that damage, sometimes severe, can occur in buildings designed in accordance with the code. Hence the focus moved toward predictive methods for assessing potential seismic performance. The performance based seismic design (PBSD) explicitly evaluates how a building is likely to perform, given the potential hazard it is likely to experience, considering uncertainties inherent in the quantification of potential hazard and uncertainties in assessment of the actual building response. In this paper a brief review of the evolution of PBSD will be first presented, focusing on the developments in the U.S., and including the European Code EN 1998-3 and the Romanian Code P100-3. Some particular features of the PBSD will be also discussed. Finally, an example of the rehabilitation design of a residential building in Bucharest will be given.