Browsing by Author "Vicente, Romeu"
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- Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Urban CentersPublication . Ferreira, Tiago Miguel; Rodrigues, Hugo; Vicente, RomeuDespite the recent advances in the analysis of the seismic performance of reinforced concrete structures, the assessment of large building inventories aimed at defining and prioritizing structural retrofitting strategies is still a technically challenging task. This paper aims to contribute to bridging this gap by presenting a simplified methodology for assessing the seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete buildings, which is then applied to a group of 91 buildings affected by recent earthquakes with different macroseismic intensities. The presented methodology is based on the evaluation of eight parameters associated with different factors that affect the seismic response of the building, namely its structural features, foundation conditions, and position within the urban mesh. The formulation of each parameter and the relative weight attributed to each one of them were defined on the basis of post-earthquake damage observation and expert opinion. After defined, the proposed methodology is applied to Faro city center. Based on the results obtained, a cost benefit analysis is made considering a strengthening solution to the buildings with soft-story irregularity.
- Use of post-earthquake damage data to calibrate, validate and compare two seismic vulnerability assessment methods for vernacular architecturePublication . Ortega, Javier; Vasconcelos, Graça; Rodrigues, Hugo; Correia, Mariana; Ferreira, Tiago Miguel; Vicente, RomeuThe paper presents and discusses the application of two large scale seismic vulnerability assessment methods on the island of Faial in Azores (Portugal). The two methods are specifically conceived to assess the seismic vulnerability of vernacular architecture. The first method follows a classical seismic vulnerability index approach and is referred as SVIVA (Seismic Vulnerability Index for Vernacular Architecture). The second method is referred as SAVVAS (Seismic Assessment of the Vulnerability of Vernacular Architecture Structures) and it is a numerical tool intended to estimate the seismic capacity of vernacular buildings in terms of seismic load factors associated with different structural damage limit states. The main reason behind the selection of Faial Island as a case study was the availability of post-earthquake reports of the building stock after the 1998 Azores earthquake, which allowed comparing the damage scenarios obtained using both methods with the post-earthquake damage data and thus helped for the calibration and validation of the two methods. The application of both methods led to a good fit between estimated versus observed damage grades, which validated their applicability as large-scale first level approaches. Moreover, as the main outcome, the paper presents the novelties of the SAVVAS method, which had not been applied before, and discusses its main advantages, namely: no need for calibration with previous post-earthquake damage data, an enhancement of the prediction capabilities, a more individualized evaluation of the buildings and the possibility to assess the seismic performance of the building in different loading directions.