Lateral load carrying capacities of reinforced concrete structures which are designed by considering only gravity loads or according to outdated earthquake codes can be insufficient. The most important problem for these buildings is the limited ductility of the frame elements. How to evaluate the performance of an existing structure and to what level to strengthen it had been major concerns for structural engineers. Recent earthquakes which occurred in the Marmara Region in the last decade have increased the number of seismic assessment projects drastically. However, there was no special guideline or code dealing with the assessment of existing buildings. In order to have uniformity in assessment projects, a new chapter has been included in the revised Turkish Earthquake Code (2006). In this study, the existing and retrofitted conditions of a reinforced concrete building were assessed comparatively by employing linear and nonlinear assessment procedures according to different seismic rehabilitation codes. The study was carried out on a six storey reinforced concrete telephone exchange building. Although there was no damage in the structure due to the recent earthquakes that occurred in the Marmara Region, the building was assessed and retrofitted in 2001 by using equivalent lateral load analysis results. The results of linear and nonlinear assessment procedures performed in the scope of this thesis, were also compared with the assessment results of this previous study. In the nonlinear assessment procedures, pushover analysis results were used. In addition to comparison of the assessment procedures, efficiency of a widely used approximate pushover method was also investigated.

At the design stage, column-beam connections of steel structures are assumed as fully rigid or as hinges, and the design is completed with these assumptions. On the other hand, in practice, steel column-beam connections show neither fully rigid nor fully hinge behaviour, and the characteristic behaviour of the connections lies between these two special cases. Performing realistic calculation of these forces and knowing the behaviour of structures close to reality will decrease life and goods losses to the minimum level in a probable of earthquake to be encountered in the future. &nbsp / In this study, seismic performance of 2-D steel frames were evaluated by Capacity Spectrum Method proposed in the ATC 40 document published in 1996. A new computer program was developed in order to define all geometric and loading data and to perform nonlinear analysis of rigid and semi rigid steel frames for which the performances will be evaluated. In case studies, 3-Floor Steel Frames that have different bay numbers were investigated in various forms according to the rigid and different semi rigid connection types. In addition, the performances these frames for various seismic regions and soil conditions were compared. According to the results, it was observed that semi rigidly connected frames are under the effect of smaller ground acceleration have greater displacement values. As a consequence of this ductile and energy dissipative response, it was seen that the stresses in the members of frame become considerably small, relative to the stresses in the rigid frames&rsquo / . Furthermore, the performances of semi-rigid frames can be affected negatively beyond such a low rigidity. Consequently, the most convenient design should be made according to the seismic and soil region where the structure to be constructed by performing the necessary studies on the connection details in order to achieve desired performance, serviceability and optimum member criteria.

Earthquakes are one of the biggest problems in civil engineering all over the world. Due to earthquakes, great disasters in cities with collapsed structures and human losses have been caused. More specific, old buildings that have been built based on old regulations and design building codes do not fulfil anymore the new criteria of seismic designing.In this study, an old building has been evaluated for the seismic load in order to decide if there is a need for strengthening it using retrofitting methods. The seismic evaluation is based on Eurocode 8 and after the application of retrofitting techniques the building fulfilled its seismic design criteria. The existing building is a four-storey, concrete structure that has been built in 1970 and is located in Athens (the capital city of Greece). The seismic evaluation is conducted by using the software Seismostruct.Two analyses are performed in order to evaluate the seismic behavior of the building. First, an eigenvalue analysis is conducted before and after retrofitting. By using this analysis the torsional sensitivity of the building has been checked. Then, using pushover analysis, the comparison of the target displacement (expected displacement of the building for the design seismic action) for each limit state and the displacement of the building when the first member of the building reached the corresponding limit state, is presented. Target displacement must not be greater than this displacement in order to ensure the safety of the building. If the comparison shows that target displacement is greater, the weak links in the facility should be identified and the proper retrofitting method should be applied for the improvement of the seismic behavior of the building. Pushover analysis is conducted before and after the application of retrofitting methods.After performing the eigenvalue and pushover analysis of the existing building it was found that the building was torsional sensitive and shear failures occurred in many beams of the structure. Regarding the bending failures, the target displacement was not greater than the displacement of the building when the first member of the building reached any of the corresponding limit states. Therefore the building was safe against bending failures. With the application of X-shaped steel braces in selected frames, the building had higher stiffness and it was not torsional sensitive but shear failures occurred again in many beams. Furthermore, compressive failures occurred in columns that were connected with the steel braces. Finally, with the application of fibre reinforced plastic jacketing in the members that failed in the previous pushover analysis there were no shear or compressive failures. Finally the structure was safe against seismic actions.The application of retrofitting methods improved the seismic behavior of the building and the structure fulfilled the updated regulations of Eurocode 8 regarding seismic design. This project thesis may give rise to further studies and researches concerning seismic retrofitting and seismic damage prevention.

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are a lateral force resisting system consisting of thin infill steel plates surrounded by boundary frame members. The infill steel plates are allowed to buckle in shear and subsequently form diagonal tension field actions during earthquake events. Hysteretic energy dissipation of this system is primarily achieved through yielding of the infill plates. Conceptually, in a SPSW system with ideally rigid columns pinned to ground, the infill plates at different stories will yield simultaneously as a result of the lateral loads. However, when the columns become flexible, infill plate yielding may initially occur at one story and progressively spread into the other stories with increasing roof displacement. This research investigates the effect of column stiffness on infill plate yielding sequence and distribution along the height of steel plate shear walls subjected to earthquake forces. Analytical models are derived and validated for two-story SPSWs. Based on the derived model, probabilistic simulations are conducted to calculate the probability of achieving infill plate yielding in both stories before occurrence of a premature failure caused by excessive inter story drift at the initially yielded story. A total of three simulation methods including the Monte-Carlo method, the Latin Hypercube sampling method, and the Rosenblueth’s 2K+1 point estimate method were considered to account for the uncertain infill plate thickness and lateral force distributions in the system.The investigation is also extended to multi-story SPSWs. Three example six-story SPSWs are evaluated using the Rosenblueth's 2K+1 point estimation method which is identified to be most efficient from the simulation on two-story SPSWs. Moreover, the effectiveness of the column minimum moment of inertia required in the current code for achieving infill plate yielding at every story of SPSWs is evaluated.

Trabalho de investigação desenvolvido na Universidade de Tecnologia e Economia de Budapeste / Tese de mestrado. Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Civil - Especialização em Estruturas. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2012

Although performance based assessment procedures are mainly developed for reinforced concrete and steel buildings, URM buildings occupy significant portion of building stock in earthquake prone areas of the world as well as in Turkey. Variability of material properties, non-engineered nature of the construction and difficulties in structural analysis of perforated walls make analysis of URM buildings challenging. Despite sophisticated finite element models satisfy the modeling requirements, extensive experimental data for definition of material behavior and high computational resources are needed. Recently, nonlinear equivalent frame models which are developed assigning lumped plastic hinges to isotropic and homogenous equivalent frame elements are used for nonlinear modeling of URM buildings. The work presented in this thesis is about performance assessment of unreinforced brick masonry buildings in Turkey through nonlinear equivalent frame modeling technique. Reliability of the proposed model is tested with a reversed cyclic experiment conducted on a full scale, two-story URM building at the University of Pavia and a dynamic shake table test on a half scale, two story URM building at the Ismes Laboratory at Bergamo. Good agreement between numerical and experimental results is found. Finally, pushover and nonlinear time history analyses of three unreinforced brick masonry buildings which are damaged in 1995 earthquake of Dinar is conducted using the proposed three dimensional nonlinear equivalent model. After displacement demands of the buildings are determined utilizing Turkish Earthquake Code 2007, performance based assessment of the buildings are done.

DETAILED EVALUATION OF AN EXISTING REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING DAMAGED UNDER ITS OWN WEIGHT Bayraktar, Atilla M.Sc., Department of Civil Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yakut May 2011, 130 pages A significant part of the Turkey&rsquo / s building inventory consists of reinforced concrete frame structures. In addition to that a big part of the existing building inventory in Turkey shows insufficiency in seismic performance damage or failure of structures under their own loads has also been observed. The failure of Z&uuml / mr&uuml / t Apartment building that occurred in 2004 in Konya and resulted in the death of 92 people brings the necessity of researches on robustness and reserve capacities of the buildings under gravity loading to front. In the context of this thesis, the event in Konya that has resulted in the crushing of four columns in Dostlar Building Complex is studied. After the occurrence of the event, the building was visited, plans of existing condition were prepared and pre-assessment was performed. Original plans of the building, strength test results of the concrete samples and reinforcement detection results were obtained. The reasons behind the crushing of the columns have been investigated through a series of analyses based on a number of possible hypotheses. After modeling the building in SAP2000 program, demand-capacity ratios are calculated. Nonlinear behavior of the structure is determined by incremental static pushover analysis and the seismic performance of the building is evaluated by nonlinear procedure described in 2007 Turkish Earthquake Code. To determine the nonlinear behavior under gravity loading and collapse mechanism, incremental vertical pushover analysis is performed.

Η παρούσα διατριβή έχει ως θέμα την σεισμική αποτίμηση υφισταμένου τριώροφου δομήματος οπλισμένου σκυροδέματος. Συγκεκριμένα γίνεται έλεγχος των μέτρων επέμβασης για το κτήριο αιθουσών διδασκαλίας του ΤΕΛ Ναυπάκτου. Για τον σκοπό αυτό χρησιμοποιούνται μη-γραμμικές αναλύσεις (στατικές και δυναμικές) με βάση τις αρχές των κανονιστικών κειμένων ΚΑΝ.ΕΠΕ και EC8 για την αποτίμηση και τον ανασχεδιασμό κατασκευών. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο γίνεται τεκμηρίωση του υφιστάμενου δομήματος. Δίνονται στοιχεία για την θέση, την γεωμετρία, τις κατασκευαστικές μεθόδους που εφαρμόστηκαν. Δίνονται τα αποτελέσματα των οπτικών και των ενόργανων ελέγχων και προσδιορίζεται η γεωμετρία του φορέα. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο δίνονται οι παραδοχές και οι αρχές με βάση τις οποίες έγινε η εξιδανίκευση του φορέα για την πραγματοποίηση των μη γραμμικών στατικών αναλύσεων. Για τις αναλύσεις χρησιμοποιείται το πακέτο λογισμικού ANSRuop που έχει αναπτυχθεί στο Εργαστήριο Κατασκευών του Τμήματος. Το μοντέλο μονότονης και ανακυκλιζόμενης φόρτισης που χρησιμοποιείται είναι το γνωστό προσομοίωμα Τakeda με εννέα κανόνες υστέρησης. Προσδιορίζονται οι παραδοχές για τον υπολογισμό των διαθέσιμων αντιστάσεων σε όρους παραμορφώσεων και δυνάμεων που υιοθετούνται από τον ΚΑΝΕΠΕ και τον EC8 καθώς και τα κριτήρια που αποδέχεται το κάθε κείμενο για την επιθυμητή στάθμη αποτίμησης και ανασχεδιασμού του φορέα. Ακόμα γίνεται αναφορά στο μοντέλο προσομοίωσης του λικνισμού των θεμελίων για θεώρηση διαφόρων εδαφών. Εν συνεχεία στο τρίτο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται αναφορά στους στόχους σχεδιασμού που θέτει ο κάθε κανονισμός και στις στάθμες επιτελεστικότητας για τον κάθε κανονισμό. Γίνεται παρουσίαση των τεχνητών σεισμικών καταγραφών που λήφθηκαν υπόψη για την πραγματοποίηση των μη γραμμικών δυναμικών αναλύσεων. Οι καταγραφές είναι κανονικοποιημένες πάνω στο φάσμα του EC8 για τύπο εδάφους C που διαφέρει από το φάσμα σχεδιασμού κατά ΕΑΚ για την στάθμη επιτελεστικότητας «Προστασία ζωής και περιουσίας των ενοίκων » μόνο κατά τον εδαφικό συντελεστή S. Ακόμα δίνεται η μεθοδολογία που υιοθετήθηκε για την εκτίμηση της ικανότητας του κτηρίου έναντι των απαιτήσεων που θέτει ο κανονισμός και προτείνεται εναλλακτικά και από τα δύο κείμενα. Στα κεφάλαια 4 και 5 παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα των μη-γραμμικών αναλύσεων. Συνολικά πραγματοποιήθηκαν 56 μη-γραμμικές στατικές αναλύσεις και 84 μη-γραμμικές δυναμικές. Για τις μη-γραμμικές στατικές αναλύσεις παρουσιάζονται οι καταγραφές τέμνουσας βάσης μετατόπισης κορυφής ενώ τα αποτελέσματα των μη-γραμμικών δυναμικών αναλύσεων δίνονται με την μορφή των μέσων όρων των δεικτών βλάβης. Τέλος στο 6ο κεφάλαιο γίνεται προσπάθεια ερμηνείας των αποτελεσμάτων για τις αναλύσεις πρίν και μετά την δομητική επέμβαση. / The present project deals with a seismic assessment analysis of an existing reinforced concrete building. A fully performance-based procedure is adopted based on the principals of the draft Greek Retrofitting Code and the draft part 3 of the Eurocode 8 : Assessment and retrofitting of Buildings. The method is subjected on an existing building, which has been constructed, during early 70’ s, prior to the principals of the modern codes for earthquake resistant design. The building is located in the area of Nafpaktos. In the first chapter a summary of the characteristics of the existing building is given. Special data concerning the site, the geometry and the construction methods at the time in which the building was constructed. The results of the damage investigation according to the visual and the instrumental inspection are also given. The basic principals according to which the modelling and the non-linear analysis procedures took place is given in the 2nd chapter. For the analysis procedures the program ANSR University of Patras is used which has been developed in the Structural Laboratory of The Civil Engineering Department of the University of Patras. One-component, point-hinge macromodels are used for the RC members, to relate the end-moment to the chord rotation at member ends within each plane of bending. The M-θ relation in monotonic loading is taken bilinear, with a post-yield hardening ratio p computed assuming antisymmetric bending and using empirical expressions according to the Greek Retrofitting Code and Part-3 of the EC8 (according to the selected limit state). The hysteresis rules supplementing the bilinear monotonic M-θ curve are of the modified-Takeda type. Also the monotonic M-θ relation which is used for the modelling of the foundation uplift is given. In the 3rd chapter the performance objectives of the assessment procedure are given according to the appropriate levels of protection for the selected limit state. The synthetic accellerograms which are used for the Nonlinear dynamic procedure are compatible to the EC8 elastic spectrum for type soil C for the limit state of Significant Damage. Moreover the methodology of the determination of the target displacement according to the Annex B of the EC8-part 1 and the draft Greek Retrofitting Code. Finally in chapters 4 and 5 the results of the nonlinear static and dynamic analysis are presented. For the nonlinear static procedures the results are given in terms of base shear vs roof displacement and in terms of Spectral acceleration vs Spectral displacement for the determination of the target displacement. The results of the NonLinear dynamic procedures are given in terms of mean values of the damage index.

Over the last decade, six major earthquakes that occurred in Turkey dramatically demonstrated the poor performance of the buildings that were designed and constructed far from Turkish seismic code&rsquo / s requirements. The Marmara region, where most of the population and industry is located, is in the active seismic zone. With the rising cost of damages due to earthquakes, the necessity of the cost-benefit analysis for various rehabilitation strategies used in existing buildings has become a major concern for the decision makers who are in the position of making decisions on the building rehabilitation This study evaluates the performance of two different rehabilitation strategies applied to two five-story reinforced concrete buildings and assesses their cost-benefit analyses. These buildings were chosen to be representative of the typical residential To carry out the structural analysis of the buildings, three-dimensional models of the buildings were developed using SAP2000 [6]. Two alternative strengthening methods, insertion of reinforced concrete shear walls and application of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) on hallow clay tile infill walls, were used for both of the buildings. While modeling infill walls strengthened with CFRP, two specific modeling attempts proposed by the researchers at Middle East Technical University were used. Pushover analyses were performed to evaluate seismic performance of the buildings. The Life Safety criterion was chosen as the rehabilitation objective. The global and component response acceptability limits were checked and the cost-benefit analysis was performed in order to determine the most attractive rehabilitation alternative. The results and comparisons given here illustrated that strengthening with shear wall had the most significant improvement on the seismic performance and cost effectiveness of the case study buildings. Outcomes of this study are only applicable to the buildings employed here and are bound by the assumptions made, approximations used and parameters considered in this study. The findings cannot be generalized for the buildings rehabilitated with CFRP due to lack of the consistent models for CFRP application. More research needs to be conducted to provide solid guidelines and reliable models applicable to the CFRP rehabilitated infill walls.

La détermination des comportements mécaniques des murs en pisé est d’une importance capitale dans un contexte où il y a un regain d’intérêt pour l’utilisation de matériaux de construction à très faible impact environnementaux. D’une part, cette étude contribue à trouver des moyens appropriés pour la conservation et la restauration du patrimoine bâti et, d’autre part, permet d’établir de nouvelles recommandations pour la conception de nouvelles structures en pisé dans le respect des règlements de la construction (réglementation thermique et réglementation parasismique).Dans ce contexte, cette thèse étudie le comportement des murs en pisé soumis à des sollicitations horizontales. Quatre murs de terre en pisé non stabilisés ont été testés sous une combinaison de charge verticale et horizontale monotone (type pushover) jusqu'à la rupture. Le comportement au cisaillement et les modes de ruptures de ces murs sont étudiés à l’aide d’une technique de corrélation d’images à grande échelle. Les résultats ont montré que le pisé est caractérisé par un comportement mécanique non linéaire très significatif et une ductilité remarquable. D’une manière générale, les murs ont subi une rupture de cisaillement due à une fissuration principale au niveau de la bielle de compression. Des fissures à l'interface entre les différentes couches ont également été observées.L'évaluation de la performance de ces murs a été effectuée sur la base de la méthodologie pushover. Le travail expérimental a été complété avec la détermination des caractéristiques mécaniques du matériau pisé en compression puis une étude en cisaillement directe (cohésion et angle de frottement) à l’aide de deux boites de Casagrande de tailles différentes. Enfin, l’importance de ces paramètres a été analysée en réalisant des simulations numériques à l’échelle du mur. / Determining the mechanical behavior of rammed earth walls is a highly important feature giving that there is a renewed interest in the use of the natural material in building construction. On one hand, it contributes to finding suitable and appropriate ways for the conservation and restoration of these building and on another hand, it draws new recommendations for the conception of new rammed earth structures with respect to new building regulations (earthquake building guideline, new thermal regulation).In this context, this thesis investigates the behavior of rammed earth walls subjected to lateral loading. Four unstabilized rammed earth walls were tested under a combination of vertical and monotonic pushover tests up to failure. The shear behavior of these walls is studied along with the failure modes by means of digital image correlation. Results showed that the response of the rammed earth is characterized by significant non-linear behavior with a remarkable ductility. In general, the walls experienced a shear failure due to the failure of diagonal struts. Cracks at the interface between the bottom layers were also observed.The performance of these walls was assessed based on the pushover methodology. The experimental work was completed with the determination of the mechanical characteristics of rammed earth in compression and an investigation of the shear components: cohesion and friction angle of the rammed earth through shear box tests on a different scale. Finally, the relevance of these parameters was tested by performing a numerical model that aims to simulate the experimental tests done on the scale of the walls.