Seismic Reliability of Code-Conforming Italian Buildings

• Published in: Journal of earthquake engineering : JEE Vol. 22; no. sup2; pp. 5 - 27
• Main Authors: Iervolino, Iunio, Spillatura, Andrea, Bazzurro, Paolo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 12.12.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Aseismic buildings; Building codes; Collapse; Concrete; Damage; Damage prevention; Design; Dynamic analysis; Earthquake damage; Earthquake engineering; Earthquakes; Failure; Failure rates; Fragility; Frameworks; Geological hazards; Ground motion; Hazard; Masonry; Mathematical models; Nonlinear analysis; Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering; Precast concrete; Procedures; Reinforced concrete; Reinforcing steels; Reliability; Reliability engineering; Residential buildings; Risk; Seismic activity; Seismic design; Seismic engineering; Seismic hazard; Seismic isolation; Steel; Structural damage; Structural failure; Structural models; Structural reliability; Three dimensional analysis; Three dimensional models
• DOI: 10.1080/13632469.2018.1540372
• ISSN: 1363-2469

This paper presents and discusses some research results related to the seismic failure risk of standard, residential and industrial, buildings designed for damage, and life-safety according to the Italian seismic code, which is somewhat similar to Eurocode 8. The five considered structural typologies are as follows: masonry, cast-in-place reinforced concrete, precast reinforced concrete, steel, and base-isolated buildings. The archetype structures have been designed according to standard practice at three sites, representative of the seismic hazard across the country. Seismic risk is defined here as the annual rate of earthquakes able to cause structural failure in terms of usability-preventing damage and global collapse. For each structure, the failure rates have been evaluated in the framework of performance-based earthquake engineering, that is, via integration of site's probabilistic hazard and structural fragility. The former has been computed consistently with the official hazard model for Italy that is also used to define design actions in the code. The latter has been addressed via nonlinear dynamic analysis of three-dimensional numerical structural models. Results indicate that, generally, design procedures are such that seismic structural reliability tends to decrease with increasing seismic hazard of the building site, despite the homogeneous return period of exceedance of the design seismic ground-motion.