SEISMIC FRAGILITY OF LRC FRAMES WITH AND WITHOUT MASONRY INFILL WALLS

Abstract

This paper summarises the first phase of the fragility analyses of generic (representative) buildings in the area of Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The study was conducted at Cornell University as a part of the project Loss Assessment of Memphis Buildings (LAMB) for the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER). In this study, the fragility analyses focus on low-rise Lightly Reinforced Concrete (LRC) frame buildings with and without infill walls. The obtained fragility curves are compared with those of ATC-13 for different facility classes. Based on the obtained fragility curves, it is concluded that adding masonry infill wails to low-rise LRC frame buildings significantly reduces the likelihood of seismic damage.

Keywords:

• fragility
• lightly reinforced concrete
• masonry infill walls
• pushover analysis
• finite element analysis