Evaluation of different strengthening techniques’ efficiency for a soft storey building

Abstract

The assessment of seismic vulnerability and strengthening of existing buildings is a topic of relevant importance and priority, as evidenced in recent earthquakes around the world, particularly in Southern European countries. Some architectural solutions adopted in the decade of 1970, combined with the common design and construction practices at that time, particularly in what regards to the seismic design, influences the seismic vulnerability of these structures. The objective of the present work is to study, based on numerical analyses, different strengthening techniques to adopt into an existing building with the behaviour potentially governed by soft storey mechanism when subjected to seismic actions. The influence of the masonry infill panels will be studied and the seismic safety of the building will be assessed. Also, different strengthening techniques will be tested to fix/eliminate the soft storey like response, namely: RC columns jacketing, addition of steel bracings with and without shear link and addition of RC shear walls. The strengthened buildings results will be compared with the results of the original structure, deducting about the structural efficiency by each type of strengthening technique adopted. The costs associated to each solution will be determined and compared with the market value of the building.

Keywords:

• RC building
• infill masonry
• soft storey mechanism
• seismic vulnerability
• strengthening strategies
• cost–efficiency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.