task 5 - development of vulnerability curves for old masonry buildings
Knowledge of the behaviour of existing masonry buildings requires a lot of data, often only partly known. Many methods have been developed over the past years, to quantify damage for a given level of ground shaking. Ground motion-damage relationships were proposed independent of the way the vulnerability evaluation or classification of buildings, most of them have been established on the basis of post-seismic observations of damage according to construction characteristics. These observations are not available for the Portuguese building stock, particularly for moderate to low hazard regions which also require seismic risk assessment. Moreover, the costly methods developed in high seismic hazard regions cannot be easily used in moderate hazard regions because of the low-risk perception among the public and decision makers, as well as cost-benefits reasons.
The vulnerability methodologies based on statistical methods and damage observation are far more interesting in the large scale analysis, essentially because of the less resource requirements. However the uncertainty in the post-seismic data collection that
establish empirical vulnerability curves and vulnerability classification data qualify itself are still issues that are being dealt with.
Therefore this task is oriented to develop a proposal for data taken from previous research by Professor Carlos Sousa Oliveira in 1998, considering carefully the relation to the macroseismic scale for which data damage description is provided (5 grade damage scale).
This task is coordinated by Aníbal Costa because of his broad experience and renown expertise on masonry buildings. The expertise of the consultant, Prof. Sergio Lagomarsino, is crucial in this task since he has developed vulnerability functions for the Italian masonry building stock.
Expected results:
This task is crucial, since national vulnerability studies are based on data from other countries, namely Italy [17] and United States of America [27]. The objectives to be fulfilled are:
Knowledge of the behaviour of existing masonry buildings requires a lot of data, often only partly known. Many methods have been developed over the past years, to quantify damage for a given level of ground shaking. Ground motion-damage relationships were proposed independent of the way the vulnerability evaluation or classification of buildings, most of them have been established on the basis of post-seismic observations of damage according to construction characteristics. These observations are not available for the Portuguese building stock, particularly for moderate to low hazard regions which also require seismic risk assessment. Moreover, the costly methods developed in high seismic hazard regions cannot be easily used in moderate hazard regions because of the low-risk perception among the public and decision makers, as well as cost-benefits reasons.
The vulnerability methodologies based on statistical methods and damage observation are far more interesting in the large scale analysis, essentially because of the less resource requirements. However the uncertainty in the post-seismic data collection that
establish empirical vulnerability curves and vulnerability classification data qualify itself are still issues that are being dealt with.
Therefore this task is oriented to develop a proposal for data taken from previous research by Professor Carlos Sousa Oliveira in 1998, considering carefully the relation to the macroseismic scale for which data damage description is provided (5 grade damage scale).
This task is coordinated by Aníbal Costa because of his broad experience and renown expertise on masonry buildings. The expertise of the consultant, Prof. Sergio Lagomarsino, is crucial in this task since he has developed vulnerability functions for the Italian masonry building stock.
Expected results:
This task is crucial, since national vulnerability studies are based on data from other countries, namely Italy [17] and United States of America [27]. The objectives to be fulfilled are:
- Proposal of cumulative normal or Gaussian form vulnerability curves for the masonry structure typology, based on using observed damage data following the strong seismic events that have hit the Azores archipelago in recent past years;
- Calibration of the vulnerability assessment methodology (Task 3), through the observed vulnerability method and calculated vulnerability approach (Montecarlo method) leading to establishment of a validated vulnerability function, which can be used for damage estimation and loss assessment for the masonry buildings in Portugal;
- Finally, the comparison with other methods: GNDT II level approach [17], Coburn and Spence PSI scale [5], etc.