Reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall buildings constitute a significant portion of the building inventory in many earthquake-prone regions. A similar type of structural system is fully-grouted reinforced masonry (RM) shear wall structures. The accurate determination of the nonlinear response of reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry (RC/RM) walls subjected to lateral loading is of uttermost importance for ensuring the safety of the built environment. Analytical models provide a cost efficient and comprehensive tool to study the nonlinear response of RC/RM structures, as compared to experimental tests. Predictive models should capture nonlinear material behavior as well as the geometrically nonlinear response of RC/RM shear wall structures during major seismic events. This thesis outlines the formulation and validation of a nonlinear shell element for the simulation of RC/RM structures. The proposed shell element enhances an existing formulation of a four-node Discrete Kirchhoff shell element through the inclusion of a corotational approach to account for geometric nonlinearities and of nonlinear material models to capture the effect of cracking and crushing in concrete or masonry and the nonlinear hysteretic behavior of reinforcing steel. The analytical results obtained from multiple linear and nonlinear analyses are compared against theoretical solutions and experimental test data. These comparative validation studies show the enhanced shell element can satisfactorily capture the salient features of the response of nonlinear reinforced concrete/masonry shear wall structures including axial-shear-flexure interaction, damage patterns, and in-plane and out-of-plane loading. / Master of Science

Earthquakes are among natural disasters with significant damage potential / however it is possible to reduce the losses by taking several remedies. Reduction of seismic losses starts with identifying and estimating the expected damage to some accuracy. Since both the design styles and the construction defects exhibit mostly local properties all over the world, damage estimations should be performed at regional levels. Another important issue in disaster mitigation is to determine a robust measure of ground motion intensity parameters. As of now, well-built correlations between shaking intensity and instrumental ground motion parameters are not yet studied in detail for Turkish data. In the first part of this thesis, regional empirical Damage Probability Matrices (DPMs) are formed for Turkey. As the input data, the detailed damage database of the 17 August 1999 Kocaeli earthquake (Mw=7.4) is used. The damage probability matrices are derived for Sakarya, Bolu and Kocaeli, for both reinforced concrete and masonry buildings. Results are compared with previous similar studies and the differences are discussed. After validation with future data, these DPMs can be used in the calculation of earthquake insurance premiums. In the second part of this thesis, two relationships between the felt-intensity and peak ground motion parameters are generated using linear least-squares regression technique. The first one correlates Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) to Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) whereas the latter one does the same for Peak Ground Velocity (PGV). Old damage reports and isoseismal maps are employed for deriving 92 data pairs of MMI, PGA and PGV used in the regression analyses. These local relationships can be used in the future for ShakeMap applications in rapid response and disaster management activities.

The subject of my diploma thesis is the design of a new building "retirement home", a home with a special regime, in the form of project documentation for the construction. The building is partly basement with four above-ground floors and covered by a single-layer flat roof. On the first floor there are common, operational spaces and spaces for commercial use. The other above-ground floors are identical and serve as an accommodation. There is mostly technical background in the basement. The construction system is a wall bi-directional of brick masonry elements, with the exception of basement masonry, which is made of reinforced concrete. The object is based on foundation pads and strips. Ceiling structures are monolithic reinforced concrete. The whole building is insulated by contact insulation and has a ventilated facade.

The subject of this thesis is also dealt with construction of the second phase of the congress and wellness centre in Jinačovice. The work includes technical report, time and financial plan, project site equipment, technical regulations, inspection and test plans, implementation of technology water impermeable concrete